Compensatory Optics of Performance in Education: Exploring narcissist’s’ academic performance and their coping mechanisms

Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Research in Psychology

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Compensatory Optics of Performance in Education: Exploring narcissist’s’ academic performance and their coping mechanisms

Laura Lerebours

ABSTRACT: 

While the social behaviors of narcissists, when faced with failure, have been studied, there remains little research about how narcissists cope with this failure in a professional or academic sphere. We hypothesized that narcissists would cope by participating in alternate activities to compensate when faced with academic disappointment. Participants (n=238) were recruited on a university campus and asked to complete the NPI-13 to measure narcissism, provide their transcripts to report GPA, report their total social media use across all platforms, and complete the PPAAUS Adaption to measure the frequency of participation in activities outside the classroom. A moderator analysis was conducted to assess the influence of multiple alternative activities on the relationship between narcissism and academic performance (GPA), but no significant effects were found. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between narcissism and alternative activities and had main effects in academic activities, sports and physical activities, and entertainment and social activities. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between academic performance (GPA) and alternative activities, and main effects were found in academic activities, sports and physical activities, and hobbies. Results indicated that the level of academic performance (GPA) is not an indicator of the frequency of participation in alternative activities for narcissists. Still, links were found in the alternative activities, academic and sports, and physical activities being significantly correlated with narcissism and academic performance (GPA) consistent with typical university culture and social life engagement.

keywords: academic performance, coping mechanisms, narcissism, social media.