The Relationship Between Overt Narcissism And Meaning In Life:The Role Of Self-Concept,Aggressive And Social Dominance Orientation

Objective: Personality traits have a profound impact on an individual’s physical and psychological well-being.Overt narcissism,as a prevalent personality trait in the population,has been proved closely related to an individual’s well-being.However,current research has focused on the relationship between overt narcissism and Hedonia,but few research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between overt narcissism and Eduaimonia.Therefore,the present study aims to explore the relationship between overt narcissism and the sense of meaning in life(which is considered to be the typical representative of Eduaimonia).Methods: Study 1: A cross-sectional research was conducted to explore the mediating role of self-concept between overt narcissism and meaning in life.The overt narcissism scale,the self-concept scale and the meaning in life scale were administered to 240 college students.Study 2: A cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the moderating role of aggression and social dominance orientation in a mediating model in which overt narcissism predicts a sense of meaning in life through self-concept.The overt narcissism scale,the self-concept scale,the global meaning in life scale,the aggression scale and the social dominance orientation scale were used to investigate291 college students.Study 3: To further test the results of the cross-sectional study,a week-long diary study was conducted with 52 colege students.Results:(1)Study 1: the results showed that overt narcissism,self-concept and sense of life were significantly and positively correlated with each other(r=0.39～0.65,p<0.001);furthermore,the mediating effect analysis revealed that the 95 confidence interval for overt narcissism to predict meaning in life via self-concept was [0.26,0.53],with a significant mediating effect of self-concept.(2)Study 2: The results of the study showed that overt narcissism was significantly and positively correlated with aggression,social dominance orientation and self-concept(r=0.46～0.68,p<0.001),aggression and social dominance orientation were significantly and positively correlated(r=0.76,p<0.001),aggression and social dominance orientation were significantly and positively correlated with self-concept(r=0.13～0.17,p<0.001);the mediating effect analysis indicated that overt narcissism predicted a sense of meaning in life via self-concept with a 95% confidence interval of [0.11,0.28],which means the mediating effect of self-concept was significant;furthermore,the moderating effect analysis showed that the interaction term between aggression and overt narcissism(β=0.16,p<0.01)and the interaction term between social dominance orientation and overt narcissism(β=0.15,p<0.05)were significant predictors of self-concept;In a word,these results suggest a moderated mediation model.(3)Study 3: The findings indicated that trait-level overt narcissism cannot significantly predict individuals’ daily sense of meaning in life;however,daily-level overt narcissism can significantly predict individuals’ daily sense of meaning in life(β=0.11,p<0.05);the results of the mediation analysis showed that trait-level(95% CI: 0.07～0.72)and daily overt narcissism(95%CI: 0.27～0.42)both positively predicted individuals’ sense of meaning through selfconcept;moderator analyses showed that neither trait-level nor daily-level moderators of aggression and social dominance orientation has a significant moderating effect.Conclusion:(1)In Chinese college students,overt narcissists’ sense of meaning in life is unstable;(2)Self-concept plays a mediating role in the relationship between overt narcissism and sense of meaning in life;(3)The moderating role of aggression and social dominance orientation in the relationship between overt narcissism and selfconcept is unstable,and the negative effects of both cannot be ignored.