خودشیفتگی نامطبوعی واسطه اثر BAS بر رفتارهای اعتیاد آور

Some forms of personality dysfunction that are associated with substance use and other externalizing behaviors, such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder, are characterized by low five-factor Agreeableness. Low Agreeableness and high Extraversion are both associated with the Behavioral Approach System in the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality (RST; McNaughton & Corr, 2008). Meta-analyses examining personality predictors of Substance Use Disorders (Kotov et al., 2010) and Pathological Gambling (MacLaren et al., 2011) have implicated low Agreeableness but not Extraversion. In the present study, we sampled undergraduate students (N = 346) to examine relationships between two aspects of grandiose narcissism measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), approach motivation measured by the BIS/BAS scales, and self-reported addictive behaviors. Disagreeable and Extraverted subscales of the NPI were examined for possible mediation of associations between BAS and addictive behaviors. The more disagreeable aspect of narcissism mediated the effects of BAS on drug use, gambling, sex, and maladaptive intimate relationships. These results suggest that one mechanism through which the Behavioral Approach System may promote addictive behavior among grandiose Narcissists is through its association with their aggressive and antagonistic interpersonal style.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a psychiatric pathology characterized by grandiose self-importance, fantasies of achievement, and intense desire for admiration despite poor interpersonal functioning, exploitation of others, and lack of empathy. NPD is more prevalent among men than women, and men with NPD are at high risk for alcohol and drug dependence (Stinson et al., 2008). Personality and social psychologists also view narcissism as a continuous trait variable within the healthy population that may be related to more broad personality constructs. Meta-analysis of NPD and the Five Factor Model (Costa & McCrae, 1992) found only low Agreeableness to have a substantial effect size (Samuel & Widiger, 2008), but it has been argued that the apparently modest involvement of Extraversion and Neuroticism may result from the psychometric comingling of distinct grandiose and vulnerable aspects within trait narcissism ( Miller, Widiger, & Campbell, 2010). It is widely believed that trait narcissism has at least these two discrete aspects ( Cain, Pincus, & Ansell, 2008), with measures of grandiosity correlating positively with Extraversion and negatively with Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and with measures of vulnerability being associated with introversion, disagreeableness and high Neuroticism ( Miller et al., 2011a). The grandiose aspect and its contribution to externalizing behavior was the focus of the present study, and we considered its extraverted and disagreeable components as trait representations of a motivational tendency in favor of a behavioral approach. We assessed a measure of grandiose narcissism as a correlate of potentially addictive behavior, and tested its unique contribution beyond that of more broad individual differences in approach motivation conceived within the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality (rRST; McNaughton & Corr, 2008).