The “why” and “how” of narcissism:A process model of narcissistic status pursuit

We propose a self-regulation model of grandiose narcissism. This model illustrates an interconnected set of processes through which narcissists (i.e., individuals with relatively high levels of grandiose narcissism) pursue social status in their moment-by-moment transactions with their environments. The model shows that narcissists select situations that afford status. Narcissists vigilantly attend to cues related to the status they and others have in these situations and, on the basis of these perceived cues, appraise whether they can elevate their status or reduce the status of others. Narcissists engage in self-promotion (admiration pathway) or other-derogation (rivalry pathway) in accordance with these appraisals. Each pathway has unique consequences for how narcissists are perceived by others, thus shaping their social status over time. The model demonstrates how narcissism manifests itself as a stable and consistent cluster of behaviors in pursuit of social status and how it develops and maintains itself over time. More broadly, the model might offer useful insights for future process models of other personality traits

Self-focused value profiles relate to climate change skepticism in young adolescents

Climate change skepticism hampers individual and societal transitions to a more sustainable way of life. Unfortunately, little is known about its emergence and early psychological underpinnings. To address this issue, the present study examined the links between basic values and climate change skepticism in young adolescents from three culturally, socially, and politically diverse countries. In an online survey, adolescents (N = 5,244, ages 12–14) from the Netherlands, China, and Colombia reported their basic values and levels of climate change skepticism. In each country, adolescents who reported elevated levels of climate change skepticism prioritized self-enhancement values (and, to a lesser degree, openness-to-change values), but not self-transcendence values. Latent Profile Analyses identified 5 value priority profiles, and similarly showed that adolescents with self-focused value priority profiles reported higher levels of climate change skepticism than adolescents with other-focused value priority profiles. Together, our findings show that, across countries, early emerging climate change skepticism is linked to value profiles that promote self-interest over collective welfare. These findings suggest opportunity for intervention in early adolescence, when adolescents’ budding values and views on polarized topics such as climate change may be relatively malleable

Parental praise and children’s exploration: A virtual reality experiment

When children practice a new skill and fail, it is critical for them to explore new strategies to succeed. How can parents encourage children's exploration? Bridging insights from developmental psychology and the neuroscience of motor control, we examined the effects of parental praise on children's motor exploration. We theorize that modest praise can spark exploration. Unlike inflated praise, modest praise acknowledges children's performance, without setting a high standard for future performance. This may be reassuring to children with lower levels of self-esteem, who often doubt their ability. We conducted a novel virtual-reality experiment. Children (N = 202, ages 8-12) reported self-esteem and performed a virtual-reality 3D trajectory-matching task, with success/failure feedback after each trial. Children received modest praise ("You did well!"), inflated praise ("You did incredibly well!"), or no praise from their parent. We measured motor exploration as children's tendency to vary their movements following failure. Relative to no praise, modest praise-unlike inflated praise-encouraged exploration in children with lower levels of self-esteem. By contrast, modest praise discouraged exploration in children with higher levels of self-esteem. Effects were small yet robust. This experiment demonstrates that modest praise can spark exploration in children with lower levels of self-esteem

Raising children with high self-esteem (but not narcissism)

With the rise of individualism since the 1960s, Western parents have become increasingly concerned with raising children’s self-esteem. This is understandable, given the benefits of self-esteem for children’s psychological health. However, parents’ well-intentioned attempts to raise self-esteem, such as inflated praise, may inadvertently breed narcissism. How, then, can parents raise self-esteem without breeding narcissism? Here, we propose a tripartite model of self-regard, which holds that the development of self-esteem without narcissism can be cultivated through realistic feedback (rather than inflated praise), focus on growth (rather than on outperforming others), and unconditional regard (rather than regard that is conditional). We review evidence in support of these practices and outline promising research directions. The tripartite model integrates existing research, stimulates theory development, and identifies leverage points for intervention concurrently to raise self-esteem and curtail narcissism from a young age

Green teens: Understanding and promoting adolescents’ sustainable engagement.

Young people are disproportionally impacted by heatwaves, floods, droughts, and other impacts of climate change. They also have unique potential to catalyze the transformative sustainable change that the world needs now. How can this potential be leveraged? In this perspective, we present the sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis to understand and harness young peoples’, especially adolescents’, potential for sustainable engagement. The hypothesis posits that adolescents will be internally motivated to engage in sustainable behavior when they construe such behavior as a means of pursuing their personal motives for autonomy and status. The hypothesis also suggests that sustainability-promoting policies (educational programs, campaigns) can be improved by using techniques that reshape how adolescents construe sustainability—from a low-priority chore to an activity that embodies a personal priority. We discuss research priorities to expand and evaluate the sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis and to help better understand the psychological forces underlying adolescents’ sustainable engagement