So How Narcissistic Are You Anyway?

I think it was John Rosemond who summed up parenting by saying it was a parent's job to spend the first two years of her child's life convincing him that he's the center of the universe then to spend the next 16 years convincing him that he's not.

I've loved that quote since the first time I read it and it fits perfectly with a fascinating article my father sent me from The Alaska Dispatch (by Josh Saul, April 14th) titled "Fighting an Epidemic of Narcissism." where Saul interviews Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, who came to Anchorage last week to talk about how the new generation of college students is much more narcissistic than their parents' generation.

Besides Rosemond's quote I also happen to love irony and the irony is flowing as Saul interviews Jennifer Husby, 23, a University of Alaska Anchorage student who is asked whether she agrees with Twenge's research.

She disagrees, saying that her classmates are just much busier and so focused on personal and financial success that they're already in the "keeping up with the Joneses phase."

"It's like I have so much going on that I don't have the time to focus on anything other than myself," Husby says. "Everything can seem narcissistic to a point because everything we do is to satisfy one of our own needs."

Is anyone else smiling out there? Because the last time I checked, that was the classic definition of narcissism. But then perhaps Ms. Husby was so focused on her "personal and financial success" that she failed to invest in a good dictionary. But I shouldn't be sarcastic, it's unbecoming I'm sure, and you should read the article for yourselves because not only does it give you something to think about, you can also take a quiz based on the test Twenge developed called the Narcisssism Personality Inventory (NPI) which in 40 questions tells you how narcissistic you are.

Some of the questions are obvious: "Do you like to look at yourself in the mirror?" but most are more intriguing, such as: "Do you depend on other people to get things done?" and "Do you find it easy to manipulate people?" I won't give out any spoilers but when you get your score (12-15 being average, 18 being Celebrity Status and 20 or above being a full-blown Narcissist Extraordinaire) it breaks it down into subcategories--personality traits that are components of narcissism that you may not have thought of as being narcissistic per se.

I took it and then had my husband take it and then when the kids saw what we were doing they wanted to take it too. So what was my score? Well, I'm embarrassed to say actually. And you can interpret that any way you want--maybe I'm embarrassed because my score says I'm so darn humble that it kind of negates the test if I broadcast it, maybe I'm embarrassed because I'm so completely average in my narcissistic tendencies or maybe I'm a megalomaniac in blogger's clothing. I'll let you decide, but take the quiz and see what you think then come back next week because I certainly have more to say on the subject.

Is it narcissistic of me to hope you will?

Photo from The Alaska Dispatch

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