Reciprocal self-disclosure makes children feel more loved by their parents in the moment: A proof-of-concept experiment.

Feeling loved by one's parents is critical for children's health and well-being. How can such feelings be fostered? A vital feature of loving interactions is reciprocal self-disclosure, where individuals disclose intimate information about themselves. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we examined whether encouraging reciprocal self-disclosure in parent-child dyads would make children feel more loved during the conversation. Participants were 218 children (ages 8-13, 50% girls, 94% Dutch) and one of their parents (ages 28-56, 62% women, 90% Dutch). Parent-child dyads received a list of 14 questions and took turns asking them each other for 9 min. Dyads were assigned randomly to engage in self-disclosure (questions invoking escalated intimacy) or small talk (questions invoking minimal intimacy). Before and after, children reported how loved they felt by their parent during the conversation. Self-disclosure made children feel more loved during the conversation than did small talk. Compared to small talk, self-disclosure did not instigate conversations that were lengthier or more positive; rather, it instigated conversations that were more emotionally charged (reflecting anger, anxiety, and sadness), social (discussing family and friends), reflective (creating insight), and meaningful (addressing deeply personal topics, including the passing of loved ones). The dyad's gender composition did not significantly moderate these effects. Our research suggests that reciprocal self-disclosure can make children feel more loved in the moment, uncovers linguistic signatures of reciprocal self-disclosure, and offers developmental scientists a tool to examine causal effects of reciprocal self-disclosure in parent-child dyads. Future work should examine long-term effects in everyday parent-child interactions. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: How can parents make children feel more loved by them in the moment? We theorize that these feelings can be cultivated through reciprocal self-disclosure. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we examined effects of reciprocal self-disclosure versus small talk in 218 parent-child dyads, with children aged 8-13. Self-disclosure (vs. small talk) made children feel more loved during the conversation. Linguistically, self-disclosure instigated conversations that were more emotionally charged, social, reflective, and meaningful. This research provides an experimental method to study self-disclosure in parent-child dyads and suggests that self-disclosure can make children feel more loved in the moment.

Development and validation of the Autonomy Scale Amsterdam.

This paper describes the development and validation of the Autonomy Scale Amsterdam (ASA). We propose that a new measure of autonomy is needed and, as such, we developed and validated an autonomy scale relevant for psychiatry. Based on literature, an expert meeting and three samples of the general population (N = 298, N = 207, N = 309) we provide evidence (a) that supports a 6-factor structure model as a better fit than alternative models with a high reliability to capture the concept of autonomy consisting of: Self-integration, Engagement with life, Goal-directedness, Self-control, External constraints and Social support, (b) for the scale's convergent and discriminant validity with constructs in autonomy's nomological network and (c) for the scale's criterion validity with well-established well-being outcomes, and (d) that the measure is not redundant with a prior measure of autonomy, the autonomy-connectedness scale, and demonstrates incremental validity in the prediction of mental health over and above an existing measure of autonomy. Taken together, the results suggest that the ASA is a useful scale that shows positive evidence of psychometric quality to measure autonomy in a sample of the general population (total N = 856), accounting for a unique predictive value over and above an existing measure of autonomy concerning several mental health outcomes. The ASA can further help our understanding of the role of autonomy in mental disorders.

Narcissistic coaches and athletes' individual rowing performance.

Narcissism, a personality trait marked by an excessively self-aggrandizing, entitled, and dominant orientation, has been associated with high performance under competitive pressure, as these contexts afford the opportunity to self-enhance. Narcissism is often characteristic of organizational and political leaders, yet little is known about narcissism in sports coaches. We propose that in a competitive context narcissistic coaches could inspire and motivate their athletes to raise their performance. We investigated the association between coach narcissism and athletes' performance, and the role of athletes' perceived self-enhancement opportunity as a potential mediating mechanism. We examined coach narcissism, athletes' individual end times (i.e., performance), and athletes' perceptions of self-enhancement opportunity during annual national indoor rowing competitions in 266 national level competitive rowers from 52 rowing clubs. Results of multilevel analyses showed that coach narcissism positively predicted athlete performance, and this was explained by athletes' perceived opportunity to self-enhance during the competition. Thus, narcissistic coaches seem to reinforce athletes' perceptions that competition provides them with an opportunity to show off their skills, which in turn accounts for athletes' better performance in comparison to athletes who do not train with narcissistic coaches. The findings point to a potentially functional side of narcissism in coaching.

Early physiological indicators of narcissism and self-esteem in children.

A common belief is that narcissism is a manifestation of high self-esteem. Here, we argue that self-esteem and narcissism are fundamentally distinct and have unique early physiological indicators. We hypothesized that children predisposed to narcissism would show elevated, whereas children predisposed to high self-esteem would show lowered, physiological arousal in social-evaluative contexts. We tested this in a prospective study including 113 children, who were first assessed at age 4.5, a critical age when children begin evaluating themselves through others' eyes. At age 4.5, children sang a song in front of an audience while being videotaped. Children's physiological arousal (skin conductance, heart rate, and heart rate variability) was assessed while children anticipated, performed, and recovered from the singing task. At age 7.5, children's narcissism and self-esteem levels were assessed. Consistent with our predictions, children predisposed to higher narcissism levels showed elevated skin conductance levels during anticipation. Their skin conductance levels further rose during performance (but less so than for other children) and failed to return to baseline during recovery. By contrast, children predisposed to higher self-esteem levels showed lowered skin conductance levels throughout the procedure. The effects emerged for skin conductance but not heart rate or heart rate variability, suggesting that arousal was sympathetically driven. Effects were larger and more robust for self-esteem than for narcissism. Together, these findings uncover distinct physiological indicators of narcissism and self-esteem: Narcissism is predicted by indicators reflecting early social-evaluative concerns, whereas self-esteem is predicted by indicators reflecting an early sense of comfort in social-evaluative contexts.

How Narcissism Shapes Responses to Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior: Hypo-Responsiveness or Hyper-Responsiveness?

Narcissists have a relatively higher proclivity for displaying antisocial rather than prosocial behaviors, suggesting a comparatively higher tendency for unfavorably impacting societies. However, maintenance of social order also depends on appropriate responses to others' social behavior. Once we focus on narcissists as observers rather than actors, their impact on social functioning becomes less clear-cut. Theoretical arguments suggest that narcissists could be either hypo-responsive or hyper-responsive to others' social behavior. Across four studies, we examined narcissists' responsiveness to variations in others' antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Results showed that narcissists differentiated less between others' antisociality/prosociality, as reflected in their subsequent moral character evaluations (Studies 1-4) and reward and punishment (Studies 3 and 4). These results suggest that narcissists are hypo-responsive to others' social behaviors. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Narcissism and Leadership in Children.

Some leaders display high levels of narcissism. Does the link between narcissism levels and leadership exist in childhood? We conducted, to our knowledge, the first study of the relationship between narcissism levels and various aspects of leadership in children (N = 332, ages 7-14 years). We assessed narcissism levels using the Childhood Narcissism Scale and assessed leadership emergence in classrooms using peer nominations. Children then performed a group task in which one child was randomly assigned as leader. We assessed perceived and actual leadership functioning. Children with higher narcissism levels more often emerged as leaders in classrooms. When given a leadership role in the task, children with higher narcissism levels perceived themselves as better leaders, but their actual leadership functioning did not differ significantly from that of other leaders. Specification-curve analyses corroborated these findings. Thus, children with relatively high narcissism levels tend to emerge as leaders, even though they may not excel as leaders.

Employee narcissism and promotability prospects.

INTRODUCTION: Narcissistic individuals often rise to positions of influence, but how so? Upward mobility in formal hierarchies is frequently contingent upon supervisory evaluations. We examined the relation between employee narcissism and supervisor promotability ratings, testing predictions from the display of power perspective (narcissism will positively predict promotability due to higher perceived power) and impression management perspective (narcissism will positively predict promotability due to self-promotion). METHOD: In two multisource studies involving employees and their supervisors from diverse organizations (S1: Nemployees  = 166; Nsupervisors  = 93; S2: Nemployees  = 128; Nsupervisors  = 85), we measured employee narcissism (S1, S2), employee sense of power, employee impression management tactics toward the supervisor (S2), and employee promotability as rated by supervisors (S1-S2). Further, in an experiment (S3: N = 181), we tested the causal effect of employee sense of power on promotability. RESULTS: Results favored the display of power perspective. Although narcissism predicted both higher self-promotion toward the supervisor and greater sense of power, it was the latter that explained the positive relation between employee narcissism and promotability ratings. CONCLUSION: Employees high on narcissism act as if they have more power in organizations, and thus, demonstrate behavior that would be expected in higher level positions. The findings help to explain narcissistic individuals' rise through the ranks.

Creativity in ADHD: Goal-Directed Motivation and Domain Specificity.

Objective: This research aimed to provide explanations for the inconsistent findings regarding creativity in ADHD. Method: In Study 1, we assessed real-world creative achievements and intrinsic motivation during idea generation in adults with ADHD and compared these with controls. In Study 2, we manipulated competition during idea generation to investigate effects on idea originality in adults with ADHD versus controls, and assessed creativity in specific domains. Results: Adults with ADHD reported more real-world creative achievements. We did not observe differences in intrinsic motivation during idea generation between groups, but adults with ADHD generated more original ideas when competing for a bonus. Moreover, adults with ADHD rated themselves as more creative in specific creative domains. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that goal-directed motivation may drive the enhanced real-world creative achievements of people with ADHD. Moreover, people with ADHD may selectively engage and excel in creative domains that fit their skills and preferences.

The Effects of Leadership and Job Autonomy on Vitality: Survey and Experimental Evidence.

Vitality refers to the experience of having energy available to one's self. Vital employees are full of positive energy when they work, and feel mentally and physically strong. Such employees often show higher job performance and lower stress than their less vital colleagues. Despite the importance of vitality, few public administration studies have studied vitality. More generally, by focusing on vitality, we aim to bring a "positive psychology" perspective into the domain of public administration. We analyze whether two important job characteristics (leader's task communication and job autonomy) affect vitality. We use a multi-method design. A large-scale survey (N = 1,502) shows that leader's task communication and job autonomy are positively related to vitality. A lab experiment (N = 102) replicated these findings, showing cause-and-effect relationships. In conclusion, public organizations can potentially increase employee vitality (a) by increased task communication from leaders and (b) by providing employees with greater job autonomy.

Narcissistic Leaders and Their Victims: Followers Low on Self-Esteem and Low on Core Self-Evaluations Suffer Most.

Narcissistic leaders are self-absorbed and hold beliefs of entitlement and superiority. Their aggressive tendencies in the face of criticism and inclinations to validate their self-worth by derogating others may lead others to perceive them as being abusive. Here, we test the relationship between leader narcissism and followers' perceptions of abusive supervision. Drawing upon research related to the behavioral plasticity hypothesis, we propose that followers with low self-esteem will perceive narcissistic leaders as more abusive than those with high self-esteem. Followers low on self-esteem are more insecure, more in need of approval from their supervisor and are more likely to interpret the haughty, derogatory attitude of narcissistic leaders as abusive. Such followers also make for 'easier targets' and thus may actually suffer more abusive behavior from their narcissistic leaders. In a first multi-source study of 85 leaders and 128 followers, we found support for the moderating role of follower self-esteem in the relationship between leader narcissism and perceived abusive supervision: Narcissistic leaders were rated as more abusive by followers who were low on self-esteem, but not those higher on self-esteem. In a second multi-source field study among 177 leader-follower dyads, we tested a moderated mediation model and showed that this finding also holds for the broader concept of follower core self-evaluations as a moderator. Abusive supervision, in turn, was related to lower follower performance and followers experiencing more burnout symptoms. Thus, followers low on self-esteem or low on core self-evaluations seem to suffer most from narcissistic leaders as they perceive them to be abusive and, in turn, these followers show reduced performance and more burnout symptoms when working for such leaders. This research thus identifies an important moderator that might help reconcile previous inconsistent findings regarding perceptions of narcissistic leaders.

Narcissistic leaders: An asset or a liability? Leader visibility, follower responses, and group-level absenteeism.

Although narcissists often emerge as leaders, research has thus far shown inconsistent results on the relationship between leader narcissism and effectiveness in the eyes of followers. Here we draw on leader distance theory (Shamir, 1995) and implicit leader theory (Lord & Maher, 1991) to propose that followers' assessment of a narcissistic leader and followers' overall job attitudes depend on the leader's visibility to the followers. The more opportunities followers have to observe narcissistic leaders the more they will experience these leaders' toxic behavior (e.g., exploitativeness) and the less they will perceive the leader as effective. To test our hypotheses we collected multisource, longitudinal data from 175 retail stores and obtained subjective (followers' perceptions of leader effectiveness and their overall job attitudes) as well as objective (leaders' organizational experience at time of hire, employee absenteeism trends) indices of leader functionality. Results showed that narcissistic leaders had less organizational experience at the time they were hired. Moreover, when followers had fewer opportunities to observe their leader, leader narcissism was positively related to perceived leadership effectiveness and job attitudes. However, when followers had more opportunity to observe their leader, the positive relationship disappeared. Finally, leader narcissism was neither positively nor negatively associated with absenteeism, whereas absenteeism declined over time under non-narcissistic leaders. These findings advance our knowledge of how followers respond to narcissistic leaders and how these leaders function in organizational settings where they have legitimate positions of power. (PsycINFO Database Record

Specific Mindfulness Skills Differentially Predict Creative Performance.

Past work has linked mindfulness to improved emotion regulation, interpersonal skills, and basic cognitive abilities, but is unclear about the relation between mindfulness and creativity. Studies examining effects of mindfulness on factors pertinent to creativity suggest a uniform and positive relation, whereas work on specific mindfulness skills suggests that mindfulness skills may differentially predict creativity. To test whether the relation between mindfulness and creativity is positive and uniform (the uniform hypothesis) or differentially depends on particular components of mindfulness (the differential hypothesis), we conducted four studies in which mindfulness skills were measured, extensively trained, or manipulated with a short, incidental meditation session. Results supported a differential relation between mindfulness and creativity: Only the ability to observe and attend to various stimuli consistently and positively predicted creativity. Results regarding other mindfulness skills were less consistent. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.