CHAPTER II

PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESIS

CHAPTER II

PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESIS

2.1 Problems: Their statement

2.2 Varia~les : Their specifications

2.3 Hypotheses: Their formation

- 48 -

Chapter!!

Problem and Hypothesis

In any scientific enquiry, the purpose of the investigation is squarely

served through posing the researchworthy problem coherent with the purpose.

As pointed out in Chapter-I, the purpose of this doctoral research work is to

study the phenomenon of narcissism in the context of Eysenck's well­

established personality dimensions. And the best way of serving this purpose

is through posing the researchworthy problem in the form of interrogative

statement. (Kerlinger, 1978). As such, an attempt has been made in the

following section to express the problems of the present investigation in the

question form.

2.1 PROBLEMS: THEIR STATEMENT

1. Is narcissism distributed normally in the population of college

students?

2. , Do male college students will show more degree of narcissism than the

female college students?

3. Is narcissism systematically related to extraversion, neuroticism and

psychotic ism - the Eysenckian dimensions of personality, to the

significant extent?

- 49-

4. Are variations in the magnitude of narcissism susceptible to the joint­

action effects of sex and high and low levels of personality dimensions

of the college students?

5. Does degree ofnarcissism vary in accordance with the educational faculty

of the college students?

6. Is degree of narcissism susceptible to the joint-action effect of type of

educational faculty and sex of the college students?

If a careful inspection of the expression of the statements of the

problems cited above is made, it becomes very clear that the present study is

mainly concerned with in all six variables, namely, sex, extraversion,

neuroticism, psychoticism, educational faculty and narcissism. Out of these

variables the first five can be conceived as suspected independent variables

and the last one i.e. narcissism can be designated as dependent variable, the

"variance" of which is to be accounted for. The best way of seeking scientific

solutions to the aforementioned problems is to seek empirical verification of

the hypotheses to be framed while maintaining coherenc~ with the problem.

However, before taking such a step, it was thought necessary to seek

specifications both the'oretical and empirical, of the variables under

consideration so that hypotheses of the present study could be arrived at

logically. As such, the following pages have been devoted to delineate the

scientifically conceived nature of each of the above mentioned variables.

- 50 -

2.2 VARIABLE: THEIR SPECIFICATIONS

Sex as a variable has a biological reality that influences socio-cultural

behaviour of a given person. Hence many investigators studied its impact

upon varieties of cognitive, affective and conative behaviour of human beings.

For instance Anastasi (1964) studied sex differences with respect to aptitude

and personality traits and reported that females tend to surpass males in manual

dexterity, perpetual speed and accuracy, memory, numerical computation,

verbal fluency and other tasks involving the mechanism of language, while

speed and coordination of body movement, spatial orientation and other special

aptitudes, mechanical comprehension and arithmetic reasoning excel in males.

Terman and Miller (1936) investigated sex differences in personalities and

remarked that the males directly or indirectly manifest greater self-assertion

and aggressiveness, express more hardihood, fearlessness and more roughness

of manners, language and sentiments; while the females expressed themselves

as more compassionate and sympathetic, more timid, more aesthetic, more

emotional, more moralistic and weak in physique.

As far as sex and its connection with narcissism is concerned, a few

studies have been conducted in the past (e.g. Schreer, 2002; Foster, Cambell

and Twenge, 2003). Noticing a scarcity of research in this regard, inclusion

of sex as one of the suspected independent variable of narcissism, seems

much needed.

- 51 -

2. Eysenck's Personality Dimensions:

Eysenck (1953) viewed personality as organized in a hierarchy. At

the most general level are broad dimensions or types. At the next level are

traits (Cattell's source traits would fall here). Below this is a level of habitual

responses, and at the bottom of the hierarchy are specific responses, the

behaviour actually observed.

At the type level, Eysenck (1953) analysed personality along three

broad dimensions: Extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

Cattell's second order factors roughly correspond with Eysenck's two major

personality dimensions arrived at through orthogonal system of factor analysis.

Eysenck found his own level of analysis theoretically more meaningful and

empirically more dependable one (Eysenck, 1953). Like Cattell, Eysenck used

ratings, questionnaire, situational tests, and psychological measures in

investigating his personality factors. He was also interested in hereditary

influences on personality and old studies in this area with both neuroticism

(Eysenck and Prell, 1951) and extraversion-intraversion (Eysenck, 1956).

Unlike Jung (1921) Eysenck emphasized that his dimension of

extraversion-introversion is based entirely on research and "must stand and

fall by empirical confirmation" (Eysenck and Rachman, 1965). Eysenck (1963)

described the phenotype nature of extraversion (E) as "the typical extravert is

sociable, likes parties, has many fr. iends, needs t0rt:~<t; .~., '.P.·.~~ii: .. ~I~:...,ta. lk to, and

. , lllllllllilllllllllllllll111lil11111111111111 l"t-~' "; i~~ r~; T21B33 .J: '". , , ,'i~

\ ~'\1<~ ~ -\\~;~\ ' " . I i ,<)1

- 52 -

does not like reading or studying by himself. He craves for excitement, takes

chances, often sticks his ' neck out, acts on the spur of the moment and is

generally an impulsive individual. He is fond of practical jokes, always has a

ready answer and generally likes change. He is carefree, easy-going, and

optimistic and likes to "laugh and be merry." He prefers to keep moving and

doing things, tends to be aggressive and loose his temper quickly. His feelings

are not kept under tight control, and he is not always reliable person. On the

other hand, the description of an introvert (1) personality is given as "the

typical introvert is a quiet, retiring sort of person, introspective, fond of books

rather than people, he is reserved and distant except to intimate friends. He

tends to plan ahead, looks before he leaps, and distrust the impulse of the

moment. He does not like excitement, takes matter of everyday life with proper

seriousness, and likes a well-ordered mode oflife. He keeps his feelings under

close control, seldom behaves in an aggressive manner, and does not loose

his temper easily. He is reliable, somewhat pessimistic, and places great value

on ethical standards."

Eysenck (1967) come up with explicit physiological theory of

extraversion-introversion dimension on the basis of reticular activating system

and cortical arousal of the brain. Introverts are described as having higher

cortical arousal levels than extroverts. Eysenck's physiological theory accepts

the concept of "weak" and "strong" nervous system used by Russian

researchers - "Introverts are assumed to have a weak nervous system and

- 53 -

extraverts a strong nervous system .... However, the weak nervous system as

a result of its extreme reactivity is more subject to trans-marginal inhibition

than strong nervous system." (Brody, 1972)

Eysenck's N dimension is also known as "neuroticism-stability".

Eysenck (1962) assumed that "neuroticism is a continuous trait ranging from

normal to neurotic end. Points near the plus end of hypothetical continuum

represent well integrated, emotionally stable, non-neurotic personalities, points

towards the minus end of the hypothetical continuum represent poorly

integrated emotionally unstable, neurotic personalities." From the phenotypic

aspect of the N dimension, at the positive extreme are such people who are

emotionally stable, less easily aroused, calm, even tempered, carefree and

reliable. At the negative extreme are people having strong emotions, who are

easily aroused, moody, anxious, restless, more worried, and get upset easily

(Eysenck and Rachman, 1965). The factors described by Eysenck for the

dimension of emotional stability-instability are : self-esteem, happiness,

anxiety, obsessiveness, autonomy, hypochondriasis and guilt (Eysenck and

Wilson, 1986). The emotionally stable person scores comparatively higher

for first, second and fifth factor and scores remarkably less. for the remaining

factors, whereas the reverse is true in case of emotionally instable person.

The behavioural aspects of emotionally instable person is described by Peck

and Whitlaw (1975) as, "these people are more prone to worries and anxieties

- 54 -

and get more easily upset. They are also likely to complain of headaches and

; sleeping or eating difficulties."

Eysenck (1947) explained neurotic personality in terms of a "badly

organized personality dependent, abnormal before illness, boarded out, narrow

interests, little entry .... poor muscular tone ... lack of personality integration,

lack of adaptability and lack of general drive." Regarding the genotypic level

of N, Eysenck (1967) opined that high neurotics or emotionally instable

persons inherit a more labile autonomic nervous system. Therefore they

respond intensely towards unpleasant stimuli and various functions related to

autonomic nervous system such as heart rate, muscle tension, sweat gland

activity etc ..... have higher pace. As a result neurotics are constitutionally

predisposed to react more strongly, more lastingly and more quickly with

their sympathetic nervous system towards incoming stimuli of various kinds

whereas others are predisposed to react less strongly, less lastingly and less

quickly with their autonomic system to various stimuli impinging upon the

sense organs (Eysenck and Rachman, 1965). It is posited that individual

differences in neuroticism are a function of visceral brain, which is envisaged

to be a predisposition to strong autonomic activation and produces higher

cortical arousal (McLaughten and Eysenck, 1967). According to Davies and

Tune (1970) "arousal is a state of individual which can affect his behaviour.

From the angle ofN, arousal has motivational potentials equivalent to drive"

(Mohan, 1976). According t6 Brody (1972) "emotionality thought by Eysenck

- 55 -

to be dependent upon the activity of second quasi-independent physiological

system called the visceral brain including the hippocampus, amygdala,

cingulam and hypothalamus. Differences in the threshold of activation of the

visceral brain are presumed to be the physiological basis of the individual

differences in neuroticism-stability dimension. Neurotics are assumed to have

low threshold of such activation. Brody (1972) further explained that when

the visceral brain system is aroused, it leads to arousal of reticular activity

system too. There seems to be one-way route to this activation. Therefore,

individuals high on neuroticism also tend to be introverted.

Psychoticism is considered to be an independent of other dimensions

of personality included in Eysenck's (1972) theory. Eysenck and Eysenck

(1968), Cattell and Scheier (1961), and many others have opined that this

dimension is not confined to abnormals, it encompasses normal individual

too (Bishop 1977). Eysenck (1977) offered biological basis (in terms of male

hormone) to this dimension too and accepted it as a continuum measurable

through questionnaire method and characterized by the high-psychoticism

scores as pathologically drawn towards sexual behaviour who do not share

the neurotic's guilt and do not share any repression, or neurotic nervousness

towards the members of the opposite sex. In short, they are addicted to sex as

if to a drug and this addiction and dependence creates more difficulties for

them than it solves. Thus according to Eysenck, this dimension seems to be

related to odd, cruel, anti-social and suspicious behaviour and lack of feeling

- 56 -

even towards the close ones. This dimension too forms continuum ranging

from normal to psychotic ends.

So far as narcissism's relationship with Eysenckian dimensions of

personality is concerned, a limited number of studies have been reported in

the past. For instance, Raskin and Hall (1981) found that extraversion and

psychoticism scales of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) were

positively and significantly correlated with the narcissism measure, while

neuroticism scale showed a non significant relationship with narcissism. Hence

inclusion of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism as the well-established

personality dimensions specified by Eysenck and study of their bearing upon

narcissism seem quiet justifiable in the prcsent investigation.

3. Educational Faculty

Education is an instrument of change and the educators are hence,

correctly called environmental engineers. Super (1964) has rightly pointed

out that the educational stream leads the students to their vocational

preferences, which becomes a series of fruitful events in the process of making

their future career. Thus education helps in developing wholesome personality

and the educational stream also known as educational faculty, such as science,

commerce, agriculture, engineering, etc ... helps in developing peculiar

personality characteristics while mastering the subject matters of the given

faculty through imbibing the cognitive, affective and conative habit patterns. ,

- 57 -

Chakher (1986) studied subjects from science, commerce and arts faculty

and concluded that sober, conscientious, suspicious, practical and tense are

the personality traits of the science students. Personality traits ofthe commerce

students are emotional stability, imagination and self-sufficiency accompanied

< by very high achievement. Imagination, conservative outlook and relaxed

mood are the personality traits of arts students which are accompanied with

... less achievement as compared to other two groups of students. It was further

inferred that commerce students were superior in intelligence, in verbal

, reasoning, numerical ability, language speed and achievement than science

and arts students. Similarly science students were superior in intelligence,

numerical ability and achievement as compared to arts students.

McConnel (1974) considered education as a capacity for further

development which influences to a noticeable extent the cognitive, conative

and affective behaviours of a learner in varying degrees depending upon the

type of education he receives. Science subjects cultivate analytical, critical

and scientific attitudes. Arts concepts and social sciences foster reflective

thinking, imagination and understanding of the social institutions. Technical

subjects and workshop technology accelerate the realization of educational

values like inculcation of dignity of labour, capacity to work hard, love of

aesthetics, innovation and experimentation and better confidence to face

challenges (Bakshi, 1975).

Helode (1983) found that technical students committed significantly

less errors than the non-technical students in the mirror tracing task that needs

- 58 -

high level ofthe hand-eye coordination and proper understanding of reflection

of star seen in the mirror. Thus, superiority of the technical students may be

attributed to the type of schooling they received. However, the role of type of

education or type of faculty in influencing the magnitude of narcissism has

rarely been investigated in the past. Therefore, inclusion of this variable in

the present piece of research for exploratory purposes, seems curiously

interesting.

4. Narcissism:

Amidst the two major trends of researches (one pathological-clinical

and another, psychometric) and several shades of meanings associated with

the term narcissism, it was decided to study narcissism, in the present

investigation, to understand its "variance" in the light of Eysenckian

personality dimensions. Keeping in view this purpose in mind and noticing

the dearth of research on the psychometric construct of narcissism as prevailing

in normal population, narcissism, the dependent variable of the present study,

has been conceived as under.

Narcissism simply means self-love coloured with self-esteem, that

ranges from normal to abnormal poles. It is considered as a basic human

tendency which has been quantified by Raskin and Terry (1988) with the help

of seven principal components, namely, authority, self-sufficiency, superiority,

exhibitionism, exploitativeness, vanity and entitlement.

- 59 -

Thus, the present piece of research conceived narcissism as a

quantifiable psychometric construct demanding scientific accounting for its

variance among college students.

2.3 HYPOTHESES: THEIR FORMATION

As aptly pointed out by Kerlinger (1978), hypothesis is a conjectural

statement expressing relationship between two or more variables of which

one represents antecedent conditions and the other consequent conditions of

the relationship. Hence while framing the verifiable hypothesis of the present

research to answer the problems stated under section 2.1 ofthis chapter, some

ofthe outstanding features ofthe variables delineated under section 2.2. have

been selected to frame the premises stated below.

PREMISES -

(a) Narcissism has been simply conceived as a basic human tendency of

self-love coloured with self-esteem that ranges from normal to abnormal

poles. It has been evidently quantified in terms of seven principal

components, namely, authority, self-sufficiency, superiority,

exhibitionism, exploitativeness, vanity and entitlement, yielding a

composite score of narcissism.

(b) Sex is a biological reality characterized by inducing restrictions in the

social mixing and acquisition of social, psychological and physical skills.

- 60-

It represents a true dichotomy, namely, male and female in the society

of human beings.

(c) Introverts are characterized by higher levels of cortical arousal than arc

the extraverts with ambivert intermediate with respect to the degree of

sociability.

(d) High neuroticism scorers are characterised by higher level of limbic

activation accompanied by emotionally loaded drive than the low

neuroticism scorers; while emotional stability-instability represent a

continuum normally distributed in the population.

(e) Psychoticism with a biological base in terms of degree of male hormone,

represents a continuum with high psychoticism scorers characterized

by pathological, sexual and aggressive impulses at one end but low

psychoticism scorers characterized by persons with normal behaviour

at another end.

(f) Type of education or educational stream or faculty is a demographic

variable. It has a proven potentiality to inculcate peculiar personality

characteristics in the learner while he/she is mastering the given subject

matter ofthe faculty or stream through imbibing the cognitive, conative

and affective habit patterns.

To obtain scientific solutions to the problems of the present

investigation, two sets of hypotheses were developed; one around

psychobiological variables and another around demographic variable(s). While

- 61 -

developing these hypotheses, the hypothetico-deductive approach of logic

was followed. As such using the selected premises stated above the first set

of hypotheses were developed as under:

First Set of Hypotheses:

(I -1) Using the premise (a) as a base it has been hypothesized that

I' narcissism as a psychological trait will yield normal distribution in a

population of college students.

(1-2) Using the premises (a) and (b) as the base it has been hypothesized

that male college students will show more degree of narcissism than

the female college students.

(1-3) Using premises (a) and (c) as the base it has been hypothesized that

narcissism will show its positive relationship with extraversion among

college students and thereby extraverted college students will show

more degree of narcissism than the introverted college students.

(1-4) Using premises (a) and (d) as the base it has been hypothesized that

neuroticism will exhibit its negative relationship with narcissism

among college students and thereby college students with low

neuroticism will show more degree of narcissism than the college

students with high neuroticism.

(1-5) Using premises (a) and (e) as the base, it has been hypothesized that

narcissism will show its positive association with psychoticism among

- 62 -

college students, that means, students with high psychoticism will

show more degree of narcissism than the college students with low

psychoticism.

Two-factor interaction:

(1-6) Using premises (a), (b) and (c) as the base it has been hypothesized

that extraverted male college students will show more degree of

narcissism than the introverted female college students.

(1-7) Using premises (a), (b) and (d) as the base it has been hypothesized

that male college students with low neuroticism will exhibit more

degree of narcissism than the female college students with high

neuroticism.

(1-8) Using premises (a), (b) and (e) as the base it has been hypothesized

that male college student with high psychoticism will show more

degree of narcissism than the female college students with low

psychoticism.

(1-9) Using premises (a), (c) and (d) as the base, it has been hypothesized

that extraverted college students with low neuroticism will show more

degree of narcissism than the introverted college students with high

neuroticism.

(1-10) Using premises (a), (c) and (d) as the base it has been hypothesized

that extraverted college students with high psychoticism will show

- 63 -

more degree of narcissism than the introverted college student with

low psychoticism.

(1-11) Using premises (a), (d) and (e) as the base it has been hypothesized

that college students with low neuroticism but high psychoticism

configuration will show more degree of narcissism than tje college

students with high neuroticism but low psychotic ism make-up.

Three-factor interaction:

(I-12) Using premises (a), (b), (c) and (d) as the base it has been hypothesized

that extraverted-low neurotic-male college students will show more

degree of narcissism than the introverted-high neurotic female-college

students.

(1-13) Using premises (a), (b), (c) and (e) as the base it has been hypothesized

that extraverted male college students with high psychoticism will

show more degree of narcissism than the introverted female college

students with low psychoticism.

(1-14) Using premises (a), (b), (d) and (e) as the base it has been hypothesized

that male college students with low neuroticism but high psychoticism

will show more degree of narcissism than the female college students

with high neuroticism but low psychoticism.

(1-15) Using premises (a), (c), (d) and (e) as the base it has been hypothesized

that extraverted college students with low neuroticism but high

- 64-

psychoticism will show more degree of narcissism than the introverted

college students with high neuroticism but low psychoticism.

Four-factor interactions:

(1-16) Using premises (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) as the base it has been

hypothesized that extraverted male college students with low

neuroticism and high psychoticism personality make-up will show

more degree of narcissism than the introverted female college students

with high neuroticism and low psychoticism configuration.

Second Set of Hypotheses:

(II-I) Using premises (a) and (f) as a base, an exploratory hypothesis has

been formed that the college students of different faculties (e.g.

commerce, science, engineering, etc ... ) may differ in their degree of

narcissism to the noticeable extent.

(II-2) Using premises (a), (b) and (f) as the base it has been hypothesized

for exploratory purposes that the joint-action effect of educational

faculty and sex of the person may be noticed on the degree of

narcissism among college students.