NARCISSISM, AFFECT, AND GENDER - AN EMPIRICAL-EXAMINATION OF KERNBERGS AND KOHUTS THEORIES OF NARCISSISM

The activation of narcissistically affirming and disaffirming early me mories were used to assess Kernberg's and Kohut's propositions regardi ng the roles of hostile, depressive, and positive affect in narcissist ic character structures. After completing the Narcissistic Personality Inventory participants wrote either an early memory of pride, an earl y memory of shame, an unspecified memory, or no memory before completi ng the Projective Affect Scale and Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist . ANOVAs were conducted on participants ratings of hostile, depressive , and positive affect. The results indicated that for high relative to low narcissists, prideful and nonspecific memories resulted in less h ostility, less pride, and more positive affect. Shameful memories resu lted in higher projected hostility for high narcissists. Shame was neg atively related to narcissism for males and positively related for fem ales.