Mediation effect of narcissism on the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships

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1 Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 30 (2011) WCPCG2011 Mediation effect of narcissism on the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships Mohammad Reza Khodabakhsh a *, Mohammad Ali Besharat b a Department of Psychology, University of tehran, Tehran, Iran b Department of Psychology, University of tehran, P. O. Box , Tehran, Iran Abstract This study examined the mediatory role of narcissism on the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. A sample of 609 university students (165 males, 399 females, 45 unknown) were included in this study. All participants completed the Emotional Empathy Scale (EES), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). The results showed that empathy and narcissism had significant positive and negative correlation with the quality of interpersonal relationships, respectively. The results of path analysis revealed that narcissism mediated the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships Published Published by by Elsevier Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. Open access under CC BYNCND license. Selection and/or peerreview under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance. Keywords: Empathy, Personality, Interpersonal relationship; 1. Introduction Empathy is individuals' basic capacity which contributes to the management of relationships, the supporting of communal activities, and the group cohesion. This ability has an essential role in individuals' social life (Rieffe, Ketelear, & Wiefferink, 2010). and in fact empathy is the stimulating impetus of prosocial behaviors and those behaviors that lead to group cohesion (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004; Rieffe et al., 2010) To appropriately express our empathy needs that we posses social skills (Hunter, Figueredo, Becker, & Malamuth, 2007) Empathy is an individual's vicariously emotional response to others' emotional reactions (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972; Ali, Amorim, & ChamorroPremuzic, 2009) On the other hand, empathy is the essential component for successful interpersonal performance (Sousa, McDonald, Rushby, Li, Dimoska, & James, 2010). Interpersonal perspectives contend that maladaptive interpersonal patterns result from online interactions between the individual and his/her social environment. Social processes begin early in life and extend through the whole life. Interpersonal relationships not only shape social behaviors but also affect an individual's sense of self and others (Alden & Taylor, 2004). One of the issues investigated in the present study is the examination of the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. However, a number of psychological constructs might have a mediatory role in the relationship among these variables. One of these constructs is narcissism; a personality construct that has been studied in social, personality, and clinical psychology (Brown & ZeiglerHill, 2004; Cain, Pincus & Ansell, 2008; Holtzman & Strube, 2010; * Mohammad Reza Khodabakhsh. Tel.: ; fax: address: khodabakhsh@ut.ac.ir Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BYNCND license. Selection and/or peerreview under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance. doi: /j.sbspro

2 Mohammad Reza Khodabakhsh and Mohammad Ali Besharat / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 30 (2011) Miller & Campbell, 2008). Narcissism is defined as a mixed blessing (Paulhus, 1998) because is consists of adaptive and maladaptive aspects (Foster & Campbell, 2005; Reidy, Zeichner, Foster, & Martinez, 2008). Narcissism most often is known as a complex and important personality feature that involve a grandiose, yet fragile sense of self, entitlement, preoccupation with success, and strong demands for admiration from others (Ames, Rose, & Anderson, 2006). The focus of the present study is the examination of the mediatory role of narcissism in the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. In this study, the quality of interpersonal relationships is determined by the intensity of interpersonal problems. With this point in mind, the purposes of the present study are: 1) the examination of the likely relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships; 2) the examination of the likely relationship between narcissism and the quality of interpersonal relationships; 3) the specification of the mediatory role of narcissism in the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. 2. Method 2.1. Participants and Procedure The population under investigation in the present study included all students inhabiting in University of Tehran's dormitories. A sample of 609 university students (399 females, 165 males, and 45 unknown) were included in the present study. All participants were asked to complete the Emotional Empathy Scale (EES), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). After explaining the purposes of the study, the questionnaires were submitted to the participants Measures Emotional Empathy Scale (EES; Mehrabian, & Epstein, 1972) is a 33item questionnaire which tests an individual's emotional responses to others' emotional reactions on a 9point Likert scale from 1 (absolutely disagree) to 9 (absolutely agree). Adequate psychometric properties of the EES have been reported (Besharat, 2010; Mehrabian, & Epstein, 1972). Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; Horowitz et al., 1988) This is a 127item selfreport instrument designed to measure difficulties that people experience in interpersonal relationships. It consists of six subscales including hard to be assertive, hard to be sociable, hard to be intimate, hard to be submissive, too responsible, and too controlling. Items are rated on a fivepoint Likerttype scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). Adequate psychometric properties of the IIP have been reported (Besharat, 2008, 2009; Horowitz et al., 1988). Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin, & Terry, 1988) The NPI is the most used selfreporting instrument of narcissistic characteristics in the normal population. This inventory consists of 40 items and each item involves two options, with participants being required to choose one of the two options. The sum of scores is separately calculated for each of two options and the sum of the scores indicate an individual's level of narcissism. Adequate psychometric properties of the NPI have been reported (Raskin, & Terry, 1988). 3. Results Table 1 indicates the statistics of the participants on the basis of their scores on empathy, narcissism, and interpersonal problems. Tables 1. Mean scores and standard deviations of each scale of the empathy, narcissism, and interpersonal relationships Scale Empathy Narcissism Interpersonal Problems relationship Mean (S.D.) (27.96) 14.84(6.47) 1.55(0.55)

3 904 Mohammad Reza Khodabakhsh and Mohammad Ali Besharat / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 30 (2011) Table 2 indicates the Pearson productmoment correlations between measures of empathy, narcissism, and interpersonal relationships. Table 2. Pearson product moment correlations between measures of empathy, narcissism, and interpersonal relationships Variable 1. Empathy 2. Narcissism 3. Interpersonal Problems relationship 1 *.17 *.13 2 *.52 3 The results of path analysis revealed that empathy, with a path coefficient of.23, could account for 23 percent of variance in interpersonal problems and, with a path coefficient of.21 could account for 21 percent of variance in narcissism. Narcissism, with a path coefficient of.54 could account for 54 percent of variance in interpersonal problems. All these coefficients were directly significant at p < Discussion The results of the present study indicated that empathy has a positive relationship with the quality of interpersonal relationships. This is consistent with the findings of the previous studies (e.g., Batson, 1997; Harris, 2000; Lawrence, Shaw, Baker, BaronCohen, & David, 2004; Pranis, 2000; Rieffe et al., 2010; Sousa et al., 2010) and can be interpreted on the basis of the following possibilities. Empathy is the essential component for successful interpersonal performance (Sousa et al., 2010). To respond others' emotional senses is the important aspect of empathy (de Wied, van Boxtel, Zaalberg, Goudena, & Matthys, 2006; ShamayTsoory, AharonPeretz, & Perry, 2008; Nummenmma, Hirvonen, Parkkola, & Hietanen, 2008; Hoffman, 2000). Empathy is the basic process of real psychological changes (Rogers, 1959) Further, empathy, through enabling to share others' emotional conditions, to receive regular feedback from interpersonal relationships (Pranis, 2000), and to become aware of others' senses (Chlopan, McCain, Carbonell, & Hagen, 1985) which requires the process of empathizing, reduces interpersonal problems and provides the context for the improvement of social relationships. Empathy is individuals' basic capacity which contributes to the management of relationships, the supporting of communal activities, and group cohesion. This ability has an essential role in individuals' social life (Rieffe et al., 2010 ) and in fact empathy is the stimulating impetus of prosocial behaviors and those behaviors that lead to group cohesion(jolliffe & Farrington, 2004; Rieffe et al., 2010) To appropriately express our empathy needs that we posses social skills (Hunter et al., 2007) Empathy allows a person to develop an effective contact with his/her surrounding social environment, connects him/her to the social environment, facilitates it for him/her to help others, and prevents him/her from harming others (BaronCohen & Wheel Wright, 2004)These characteristics contribute to the person to improve the quality of his/her interpersonal relationships. Empathy is a personality characteristic that is related to the quality of interpersonal relationships and, therefore, a significant correlation between empathy and human relationships is expected. For instance, a positive relationship between empathy and personality factors such as sociability which improve the quality of interpersonal relationships is expected. In contrast, it can be expected that there exist a negative relationship between empathy and personality factors such as aggression and hostility which disturb the quality of interpersonal relationships (Hojat, Zuckerman, Magee. Mangione, Nasca, Vergare, & et al., 2005). Eisenberg and Eggum (2009) stress the importance of the management of emotions in empathetic responses (de Wied, Wied, & Boxtel, 2010) Positive social relationships require the ability to understand others' sensical emotions and experiences. Furthermore, appropriate social relationships contribute to the vicarious experience of emotions similar to those in other people. From an epistemological perspective, this experience and ability is of high importance because it provides a person with the direct evaluation of others' behaviors (Fitzgibbon, Giummarra, Karistianis, Enticott, & Bradshaw, 2010). The results of the present study indicated that narcissism has a negative relationship with the quality of interpersonal relationships. This finding is consistent with the findings of the previous research (Campbell, Foster, & Finkel, 2002; Ogrodniczuk, Piper, Joyce, Steinberg, & Duggal, 2009; Raskin & Terry, 1988; Tanchotsrinon, Maneesri, & Campbell, 2007; ZeiglerHill, Myers, & Clark, 2010) and can be interpreted on the basis upon the

4 Mohammad Reza Khodabakhsh and Mohammad Ali Besharat / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 30 (2011) ). With respect to these factors, narcissism can have a negative effect on the quality of a person's interpersonal relationships with others. The results also indicated that narcissism has a mediatory role in the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. This is consistent with the findings of the previous studies (Lawrence et al., 2004; Munro, Bore, & Powis, 2005; Ogrodniczuk et al., 2009; Pranis, 2000; Rieffe et al., 2010; Sousa et al., 2010) and can be interpreted on the basis of the following possibilities. Narcissism as a personality structure (Holtzman & Strube, 2010) that consists of adaptive and maladaptive aspects (Reidy et al., 2008) involves a grandiose, yet fragile sense of self, entitlement, and preoccupation with success. For the reason of the problems that result from receiving unempathetic responses in childhood, a person utilizes narcissistic defenses in order to reduce the sense of insufficiency (kohut,1977) Narcissism, by developing inappropriate social responses that prevent from empathetic reactions (Lawrence et al., 2004) reduces the effects of empathy on the quality of interpersonal relationships. Appropriate social relations require a vicarious experience of the emotions similar to those in another person. This experience and ability provides a person with the direct evaluation of another person's behaviors (Fitzgibbon, et al., 2010) which is of necessity for the understanding of empathy, whereas narcissism with its egocentric approach, exploitation, lack of empathy, and hostility (Campbell et al., 2002) prevents from the development of relations. Narcissism, by reducing the ability to empathize (Watson, Grisham, Trotter, & Biderman, 1984) affects the quality of interpersonal relations and poses narcissistic people to many interpersonal problems in the daily life (Eaton, Struthers, & Santelli, 2006) The past research considers inflated self, interpersonal hostility and impulsivity as three major characteristics of narcissism (Carlson & Gjerde, 2009) Narcissists are unable to seek dependency for the reason of their wide mistrust and devaluation of others (Kernberg, 1984) These factors reduce the capacity of empathy and affect the quality of interpersonal relationships. Studies with nonclinical samples have shown that narcissism is substantially connected to interpersonal problems (Ogrodniczuk et al., 2009) The present study needs to be replicated in different populations and needs more empirical support. Till then, the findings of the study should be interpreted with caution. Further, the crosssectional design of the study and participants (i.e., a group of university students) exert some limitations on the generalization of the findings. Finally, the problems and limitations on the use of selfrepotting instruments should not be overlooked. References Alden, L. E., & Taylor, C. T. (2004). Interpersonal processes in social phobia. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, Ali, F., Amorim, I. S., & ChamorroPremuzic, T. (2009). Empathy deficits and trait emotional intelligence in psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, Ames, D. A., Rose, P., & Anderson, C. P. (2006). The NPI16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, BaronCohen, S., & Wheel Wright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning Autism and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, Batson, C. D. (1997). Selfother merging and the empathy altruism hypothesis: Reply to Neuberg et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, Besharat, M. A. (2010). Psychometric properties of Emotional Empathy Scale. Unpublished research report. Tehran: University of Tehran. [Farsi] Besharat, M. A. (2008). Reliability and Validity of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Daneshvar Raftar, 28, [Farsi] Besharat, M. A. (2009). Reliability, validity, and factorial analysis of a short form of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems in an Iranian population. Contemporary Psychology, 8, [Farsi] Brown, R. P., & ZeiglerHill, V. (2004). Narcissism and the nonequivalence of selfesteem measures: A matter of dominance? Journal of Research in Personality, 38, Cain, N. M., Pincus, A. L., & Ansell, E. B. (2008). Narcissism at the crossroads: Phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social/personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis. Clinical psychology review, 28, Campbell, W. K., Foster, C. A., & Finkel, E. J. (2002). Does selflove lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83,

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