RWP3
Example 1:
Please see attached PDF of chosen article:
APA Citation:
Bushman, B. (2017). Narcissism, fame seeking, and mass shootings. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(2), 229–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217739660
Describe articles findings:
Bushman’s article draws attention to the fact that narcissism, a personality trait and disorder, could be a key component in the mass shootings nationwide. In the past, people have thought that low self-esteem and insecurities were important factors in these events, but with further review and observations, narcissism could be a much more prevailing reason for why the people committed these horrid acts of violence and aggression.
In the beginning of his article he breaks down and defines narcissism. He describes people who are narcissistic and examples how they feel and think they are superior to others, have an unstable high self-esteem (note: opposite from what was thought), hostile tendencies, and tend to be hypersensitive to criticism and ego-threats. He explains how, “The personality trait of narcissism is typically measured using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988)”. This scaling measures a response, and whether it is nonnarcisstic or narcissistic, to choice pair items.
Bushman also interestingly enough points out how narcism can be linked to certain historic figures who have carried out acts of aggression and violent. Some of his prime examples being, Genghis khan, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Saddam Hussein. He then goes on to show the connection between narcissism behavior and personality to aggression and violence with two studies. In one study, (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998) he showed how people with narcissistic traits had high aggression and against people who insulted them. An important piece of this study is how it showed people with low self-esteem were not more aggressive. Another equally important study conducted, (Bushman & Baumeister, 2004) showed the correlation between self esteem and narcissism to incarcerated and not incarcerated people, which uncovered violent offenders did not have lower self esteem but instead much higher scores of narcissism.
Due to its association with aggression and violence, narcissism has become part of what is known as the “Dark Triad of Personality” (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). This triad includes narcissism, along with psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism is named after Niccolò Machiavelli, who advocated using any means necessary to gain power. These three together exemplify a person with personality traits that include a lack of empathy, sense of entitlement, and motivation to gain power despite hurting others.
Worldwide analyses are finding that mass shooters have narcissistic tendencies. In a U.S study conducted, they found narcissistic tendencies in 14% to 20% of U.S. school shooters (Langman, 2009). In a German study, they found “evidence of narcissism” in 86% of shooters (Hoffmann, Roshdi, & Robertz, 2009). Two of the first mass school shootings, Columbine and Virginia Tech, have shooters who both display narcissistic behavior. At Columbine, the Columbine killers said “I want to leave a lasting impression on the world” (Associated Press, 2006) At Virginia Tech, the gunman said “The vendetta you have witnessed today will reverberate throughout every home and every soul in America” (Langman, 2014a, p. 15). The growth of narcissism within our society could be in part why mass shooting seem to be on the rise. This attention seeking admiration of the killers paired with the explosion of social media sharing is a recipe for disaster.
Relate article to observation/question:
This article related to my question of how certain personality traits may be linked with mass-shooting because it explained, with proven studies and measures, how narcissism, as a personality trait and a disorder, within our society has been linked to aggression and violence, and further linked to the people who carry out these horrific events. It shows how previously thought personality traits of shooters, such as low self-esteem and personal insecurities are not as significant to these rampages. It also ties the narcissistic trait and its implications into society using today’s digital age of social media sharing. It talks about how narcissistic people crave attention and get their fix from the public’s response to their acts of violence. Their behavior being broadcasted gives the aggressive and violent narcissistic individual a perfect stage to shine, which one can see why the number of mass shootings continues to climb.
Example 2:
Question: How does our childhood upbringing shape our personality?
Article Findings:
In order to gain a better understanding of this question, I chose to reference, "Adulthood Personality Correlates of Childhood Adversity." This article explores the connection between children who suffered from adversity in their childhood and how it affected their personality as an adult. There has been many links that have been explored between a child's upbringing and personality traits as people have grown into adults, making this a topic of interest in personality psychology (Carver et al., 2014).
In order to gain a better understanding, there was a trial conducted at the University of Miami. The participants of the study were just undergraduate students at the University of Miami who wanted to fulfill their course requirements. The average age of the participants was 18. Childhood adversity test was given to these students to get an estimate of the impacts of their upbringing. There were multiple measures that were tested: NEO-FFI, Independence-Interdependence, LET, Pride, Self-control Scale, Urgency and Perseverance and Depression Symptoms (Carver et al., 2014).
These tests are used to measure different things. The NEO-FFI test helps assess the broad personality traits of personality. The Independence-Interdependence test measures how independent and interdependent the participants have. The LET test examines the participant's purpose of living. Pride test helped measure how much pride the participants have in themselves. Self-Control Scale measured how much self-control the participants have. Urgency and Perseverance test helped measure the degree to which the participants can persevere. The Depression Symptoms test helped determine any internal symptoms of depression the participants may have (Carver et al., 2014).
In order to come up with the conclusive results, the results from each tests were factors together. From the data obtained from all tests, it was determined that there is a major connection between childhood adversity and adulthood personality. It was found that those who performed lower on the tests had stronger links to mild forms of aggression (Carver et al., 2014).
Relation to Question:
This article helped answer my question, "How does our childhood upbringing shape our personality?" Through this study, I was able to take my question a step further and see an example of a more specific events in childhood, adversity, and see how that impacted personality. Though I knew that there had to be a link between our upbringing and personality, I never knew there were tests to measure it. Through this study, I was able to identify how our upbringing can be investigated to get a better picture of how our personality is the way it is today. This article was able to clarify my idea, and answer my question (Carver et al., 2014).
Citation:
Carver, C. S., Johnson, S. L., McCullough, M. E., Forster, D. E., & Joormann, J. (2014). Adulthood personality correlates of childhood adversity. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 1357. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01357