A Study On The Relationship Between Pathological Narcissism And Implicit Shame In College Students And Its Event-related Potentials

Objective: Narcissism and shame in psychology have been studied for a long time,but there are still many unknown problems.In this study,the relationship between pathological narcissism and implicit shame was explored by using the simple implicit associative paradigm and event related potential technique,and the neural mechanism of implicit shame in pathological narcissists was revealed.Methods: 303 college students were measured by Pathological Narcissism scale(PNI),According to the PNI score,the first 20% and the second 20% were selected as the high group and the low group,respectively.The subjects who met the requirements were measured for explicit shame and implicit shame,and the EEG data were collected at the same time.A total of 41 participants participated in the second scale test,with an average age of 18.26±0.78 years old.There were 21 students in the high group,including 8 male and 13 female.The average score of PNI was 160.17±15.15.There were 20 students in the low group,including 7 male and 13 female.The average score of PNI was 49.80±19.59.The difference between high and low groups was significant(t=11.12,P<0.001).There were 36 subjects who participated in the behavioral test and recorded the EEG.Excluding 4 subjects whose behavioral result error rate was higher than 20%,there were 32 valid behavioral data,16 in the high group,7 in the male group,9 in the female group,16 in the low group,6 in the male group,and 10 in the female group.After excluding the subjects with behavioral error rate higher than 20% and the subjects with serious artifact,30 effective EEG data were left,including 15 in the high group,7 in male and 8 in female,15 in the low group,5 in male and 10 in female.Results: Pathological narcissism and shame have significant positive correlation(r=0.713,P<0.001),narcissistic exaggeration and narcissistic vulnerability were significantly positively correlated with overall shame scores and all dimensions of shame(except for narcissistic exaggeration and family factors).High group shame was significantly higher than low group t=4.56,df=39,P<0.0.1.Behavioral results: t test results of single sample with high group D value,t=-2.63,P <0.05;t test results of single sample with D value of low group showed that t=1.67,P =0.115.D value of high group was significantly greater than 0.There was no significant difference between the low group D value and 0.The independent sample t test results showed that the D value of the high group was significantly lower than that of the low group t=-3.00(P<0.05).Implicit shame was significantly negatively correlated with shame(r=-0.39,P<0.05),significantly negatively correlated with pathological narcissism(r=-0.43,P<0.05),and narcissistic exaggeration(r=-0.37,P<0.37)and narcissistic vulnerability(r=-0.47,P<0.05).ERP date : N2 component: main effect of task type was not significant F(1,28)=0.46,P=0.50.The main effect of the electrode point was significant F(1.36,37.96)=44.39,P<0.001.The post-hoc test showed that PZ(2.26±0.00)was significantly greater than CZ(0.865±0.134)and CZ was significantly greater than FZ(-2.04±0.127).F(1,28)=0.47,P=0.50.There was no significant interaction between task type and group F=0.164,P=0.69,no significant interaction between task type and electrode point F=1.23,P=0.29,no significant interaction between electrode point and group F=1.02,P=0.34.The interaction effect of task type,electrode point and group was not significant F=0.81,P =0.42.P3 component: the main effect of task type was significant,F(1,28)=6.73,P <0.05;more positive of P3 under the condition of compatible amplitude-to-amplitude ratio induced by incompatible tasks.The main effect of the electrode point was significant F(1.48,41.31)=55.77,P <0.001.The amplitude of FC point P3 was significantly smaller than that of CZ point and PZ point,while the amplitude of CZ point and PZ point P3 was not significantly different;The group main effect is not significant F(1,28)=0.75,P=0.39;The interaction between electrode points and groups was significant F=(1.48,41.31)=6.45,P<0.001;Simple effect analysis showed that P3 with high grouping had no significant difference between PZ and CZ,and PC was significantly higher than FZ.CZ is significantly higher than FZ;The amplitude of Low-grouped P3 was significantly higher than that of CZ and FZ in PZ;The interaction between electrode point,group and task type was not significant F=0.60,P =0.50.Conclusion: People with high scores in pathological narcissism may have high explicit and low implicit shame,while those with low scores in pathological narcissism may have lower explicit shame than those with high scores in pathological narcissism and no obvious implicit shame.