Pathological narcissism, brain behavioral systems and tendency to substance abuse: The mediating role of self-control

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.019Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Pathological narcissism, BAS and substance abuse were positively correlated.

  • BIS, self-control and substance abuse were negatively correlated.

  • Pathological narcissism and BAS predicted substance abuse through self-control.

Abstract

This study examined the direct and indirect relationships between pathological narcissism, behavioral activation/inhibition systems (BAS/BIS), self-control, and substance abuse in a sample of Iranian students. Results showed that there are positive relationships between pathological narcissism and BAS with substance abuse and negative relationships between BIS and self-control with substance abuse. We tested, using structural equation model, whether pathological narcissism, BAS, and BIS predict substance abuse through self-control. Results confirmed the mediating role of self-control in the relations of pathological narcissism and BAS, but not BIS to substance abuse.

Introduction

Substance abuse is one of the main problems in modern societies, with negative social consequences. Personality traits are important predictors of substance abuse. Our focus in this paper is on individual differences on pathological narcissism, behavioral activation system (BAS), behavioral inhibition system (BIS), and self-control.

Pathological narcissism, characterized by grandiosity and vulnerability, has been found to be related to higher levels of substance abuse. Grandiosity involves intra-psychic process such as repressing negative aspects of self and other representations and distorting external information, leading to entitled attitudes and an inflated self-image without necessary skills, as well as engaging in fantasies of limitless power, superiority, and perfection. Grandiosity is often expressed through exploitativeness, lack of empathy, intense envy, aggression, and exhibitionism. Narcissistic vulnerability involves the conscious experience of helplessness, emptiness, low self-esteem, and shame (Cain et al., 2008, Foster et al., 2015, Sarasohn, 2004, Stinson et al., 2008).

Pathological narcissism has been related to substance abuse, because individuals with high levels of pathological narcissism engage in more selfish and immoral behaviors, take advantage of others, are unsuccessful to learn from their mistakes, and motivated by potential rewards (Brunell et al., 2013, Campbell et al., 2004, Campbell et al., 2005; Campbell & Foster, 2007; Foster and Trimm, 2008, Luhtanen and Crocker, 2005). Narcissists also show a tendency to discount the future effects of their decisions and choose smaller and immediate rewards rather than long-term distant rewards (Crysel, Crosier, & Webster, 2013; Jonason, Koenig, & Tost, 2010). MacLaren and Best (2013) found that disagreeable and grandiose aspects of narcissism mediated the effect of behavioral activation system (BAS) on drug use, gambling, sex, and abnormal close relationships. These results suggest that one mechanism through which the behavioral approach system may elevate addictive behavior among grandiose narcissists is their aggressive and competitor interpersonal life style.

BAS and BIS – which reflect a psychological orientation to rewarding and aversive stimuli, respectively – have been related to substance abuse. Among college students, for example, alcohol use and smoking have been associated with higher levels of BAS and lower levels of BIS. BAS has also been associated with other addictive behaviors such as pathological gambling (Hamilton et al., 2014, Hundt et al., 2008; O'Connor et al., 2009, Pardo et al., 2007).

Self-control is another trait which has been linked to the tendency to substance abuse. It has been shown that the basic measure of addiction is the loss of self-control (Berkman, Falk, & Lieberman, 2011; Volkow et al., 2013, Weinberg, 2013; West, 2006). Additionally, according to general theory of Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), individual differences in self-control are connected to alcohol use, smoking in young people, unstable married life, and frequency of accidents in adults.

Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) proposed that social control is necessary for self-control to develop. People behave correctly at first to evade punishment from others and ultimately because they internalized social norms. Social control has a restricted impact over narcissists. While narcissists will try to have a wrong image of themselves on others, their motives are not usually accepted socially. They are successful for agentic traits such as intelligence and extraversion (Campbell, Rudich, & Sedikides, 2002). However, on communal traits such as prosociality, honesty, humility, agreeableness and morality, they do not present themselves successful. Low agreeableness in narcissists suggests that they are concerned more with themselves than others. Because of the lack of concern in narcissistic people for social acceptance, social control is unlikely to stop narcissist from doing abnormal and perilous behaviors such as substance abuse (Aghababaei et al., 2014, Campbell et al., 2002, Graziano and Tobin, 2002).

Self-control has been associated with higher levels of BIS and lower levels of BAS (Crowell et al., 2014, O'Gorman and Baxter, 2002). Ent, Baumeister, and Tice (2015) reported that high scorers on self-control engage in behaviors that decrease their urge to abuse drugs.

So far several studies, which almost exclusively done on Western populations, have directly dealt with whether and how these traits are related to substance abuse. The present study would investigate the relations of pathological narcissism and BAS/BIS to the tendency to substance abuse in Iran. We would see whether the links between narcissism, BAS, and BIS are mediated by self-control.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

Participants included two hundred (38.5% female) Iranian university students. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 35, with a mean of 24 (SD = 3.83). Participation in this study was voluntary and anonymous; all procedures conformed to institutional guidelines.

Pathological Narcissism Inventory

The 52-item Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus et al., 2009) was used to assess grandiose and vulnerable aspects of pathological narcissism. The PNI measures seven dimensions of pathological narcissism: contingent

Results

Table 1 shows means, standard deviation, consistency reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) and bivariate correlations of the study variables. Pathological narcissism was positively correlated with substance abuse and BAS, and negatively with self-control and BIS. BAS was positively correlated with substance abuse and negatively with self-control. BIS was negatively correlated with substance abuse, and positively correlated with self-control.

Path analyses were performed to examine the mediating role

Discussion

The present study examined the relationships of pathological narcissism and BAS/BIS to substance abuse, and the mediating role of self-control. We found a positive relationship between pathological narcissism and substance abuse which is consistent with previous studies (e.g. Foster, Shenesey, & Goff, 2009; Luhtanen and Crocker, 2005, MacLaren and Best, 2013). People with high pathological narcissism have competitive tendencies leading them to use drugs, alcohol, engage in sex and gambling.

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