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