Narcissism and Anger: Self-Esteem and Contingencies of Self-Worth as Mediating Self-Structures

Abstract

Theory and research suggest that an internalization of psychological “structure” related to self-esteem may mediate relationships of Maladaptive Narcissism with higher and Adaptive Narcissism with lower Anger. In the present study (N = 623), Self-Esteem and Contingency of Self-Worth Scales served as presumed indices of the presence or absence of structure. Maladaptive Narcissism predicted greater Anger and a relative absence of structure whereas Adaptive Narcissism displayed an opposite pattern of results. Constructs assessing structure partially mediated the Maladaptive Narcissism relationship with greater Anger. Mediation analyses also revealed that structure not only fully mediated the inverse Adaptive Narcissism linkage with Anger, but also suppressed an association with greater Anger that would otherwise have been evident. These data supported the idea that psychological structure related to self-esteem is noteworthy in explaining the implications of narcissism for personality and interpersonal functioning.

Keywords

• narcissism
• anger
• self-esteem regulation
• mediation