Narcissism and Self-esteem:Mediating Influence of Social Desirability

To explore the mediating role of social desirability on the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem.614 college students finished the narcissism personality inventory(NPI),Rosenberg self-esteem scale(SES)and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale(MCSD).The results are four-folded.Firstly,the self-esteem level of high narcissists was quite different from that of low narcissists.Secondly,narcissism had significantly positive correlation with self-esteem.Thirdly,the scores of narcissism,leadership,self-absorption and self-admiration factors can directly forecast self-esteem.Lastly,social desirability as an intermediary variable can properly account for the relationship between self-esteem and the exploitativeness factor.The above results suggested that the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem is stable,and the genuine self-esteem can be predicted by leadership,self-absorption and self-admiration factors,whereas the defensive self-esteem can be forecasted by exploitativeness factor.