How Narcissistic Personal Disorder (npd) Is Affecting Today's Youth? (Essay Sample)

Narcissism in Youth Name: Institution: Date: Introduction Narcissism is a personality disorder in which an individual feels a sense of self-worth that is extremely elevated, where he insists on grabbing opportunities so as to gain more admiration and fame by always being the first in line. This individual thinks that he is unique and special in every single imaginable way where he believes that he superior to all and therefore believes that everyone should pay attention to him from time to time. Narcissism soars individual’s gradiosity to such heights where they are easily angered and manipulative, especially when the attention they consider a birth right is not given to them. Also, narcissism among the youths can be seen as a spectrum as some of them are lower on trait and others are high where others exhibit self-flattery in the highest possible level. This essay focuses on narcissism in today’s youth and its personal traits as well as the factors that attribute to the changes in narcissism in these individuals. Recent study shows that there is increased pressure to achieve among the young people, where they understand that; for them to achieve, they have to beat others in competitions. When these young people see achievement as getting best grades in school, winning individual competitions, and the like, then, young people focus on themselves and see others as just obstacles and people that must be defeated by any means possible until they get what they want. For this reason, I anticipate that narcissism levels will continue to increase among the youth. Another reason I considered is the dramatic decline of freedom in today’s youth which reduces the chances of them taking control of their lives, solving their own problems and also learning how to effectively deal with anger and fear (Ronningstam, 2011). This leads to them protecting themselves from prolonged depression and anxiety which increases narcissism levels. There exist a slight difference between a narcissist and a Machiavellian. This is because; narcissism is entirely driven by an individual’s ego, where he gets a delusional vision of self-grandeur by believing that he is superior, special and their view on their abilities and achievements is exaggerated. They seek admiration and attention from others and can get extremely dismissive and defensive if they face any criticism. On the other hand, Machiavellianism is driven by the willingness to manipulate others and their self-gain comes before anything else and also seeks to control others and use them to their advantage. They see other people as stepping stone to get to where they want to be (Sandler & Person, 2018). Narcissism differs from antisocial personality disorder in the sense that; narcissists seek admiration and attention while anti-socials seek functional gain as they are more aggressive in their quest to get what they want. They focus on functional benefits rather than stroking their egos like the Narcissist. Narcissism is often diagnosed with several other mental health disorders (co-morbidity) which includes eating disorders, mood disorders and substance related disorders. Youth diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) are prone to reckless and impulsive behaviors and are abusive. The comorbidity of NPD with personality disorders such as borderline or antisocial personal behavior is often high. Though Cluster B personality disorder patient’s personal styles resemble each other, they also differ substantially. The rise of individualism and the reduction in social norms accompanying society modernization meaning that the family and the community aren’t providing the same individual support as they once did is a factor that is attributed to the changes in narcissism levels among the youth of today (Bary & Frick, 2010). therefore, recent study suggest that individual should be embedded in social networks such as being engaged actively in their community as well as being connected with family and friends, benefits individual in terms of health and also lowers narcissism levels. Narcissistic personalities are looked at as kind of split personalities that have rigid and flexible behavioral patterns. The rigid patterns are hidden in cub-conscience while the flexible patterns are active mostly in the conscience part of the brain. However, the rigid patterns form the dominant personality and it controls the flexible patterns. This implies that the flexible personality is adaptive “on a leash”. It can be flexible where it adapts to extreme varieties of situations and circumstances quite effectively, as long as the rigid patterns allow it. Therefore, the flexible personality acts weird whenever the dominant personality feels threatened. The components of the five factor model of personality could be linked with narcissistic personalities to help us better understand narcissism in youth. These components include; people who have low levels of openness are wary of the uncertainty and are more suspicious ideas and beliefs that challenge their status quo. This is the same case to narcissistic individuals as they are defensive to and dismissive to ideas and beliefs that aren’t in line with what they believe in. Secondly, conscientious people exhibit behavior that is goal-oriented as they set goals that ...