2011 Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 181-190
This study investigated the influence of hypervigilant narcissism on the tendency to avoid intimacy, as well as anthropophobic tendency, among Japanese adolescents. Junior college, university, and graduate students (N=443) completed a questionnaire measuring the tendency to avoid intimacy, anthropophobic tendency, and hypervigilant narcissistic tendency. Path analysis using the hypervigilant narcissistic tendency subscales showed that both the tendency to avoid intimacy and the anthropophobic tendency were positively influenced by an “insufficient sense of purpose” and an “inhibition of self-exhibition.” Only the anthropophobic tendency was positively influenced by “hypersensitivity to approval/admiration.” The tendency to avoid intizmacy was negatively influenced by “insufficiency of self-soothing” and positively influenced by “covert sense of entitlement.” These results suggest that the tendency to avoid intimacy involves different aspects of the hypervigilant narcissistic tendency than the anthropophobic tendency, although they both occur in the context of hypervigilant narcissism.
