Performing Under Pressure version 2

Narcissism’s Impact on Performance Under Pressure

Michelle LanierChristian Tovar-Vargas Team

Wallace

Characteristics of Narcissism

• Grandiose sense of self-worth and self-

admiration (Campbell, 2007)

• Consider themselves superior and

have high confidence (Campbell, Goodie, &

Foster, 2004)

• Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1979)

• Narcissism is correlated with

• Approach Motivation

• Avoidance Motivation

Past Studies

• Narcissism and performance patterns under pressure

• Past studies have shown different results:

•Wallace, Carey & Hitti, 2011 – Narcissists overshoot

•Wallace, Ottoson, & Byrne, 2013 – Narcissists undershoot

Present Study Differences

•Penalty for overshooting

•Insight into participants strategy

•Risk/reward paradigm

Methods1. Line Bisection and Intro Survey

○ NPI and other personality measures

2. Non-Pressure Round○ Task Introduced○ Pre performance questions○ Task performed○ Post performance questions

3. Pressure Round○ Task Introduced○ Pre performance questions○ Task performed○ Line bisection and post performance questions

-5

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Participants

• N = 79 (46 Female)

• Ages 18-21

• 69 right-handed, 8 left-handed, 2 ambidextrous

• 11 Asian or Pacific Islander, 2 Black not of Hispanic origin, 18

Hispanic, 43 White, not of Hispanic origin, 5 Other

Non Pressure Round

“There’s no need to be nervous”

Pressure Round

“Take your time, and try not to choke”

Manipulation Check• “I feel performance pressure”

• Rating on 5-point scale (1: Strongly Disagree, 3: Neither

Agree/Disagree, 5: Strongly Agree)

Main effect of condition was significant, F(1, 77) = 34.570, p> .001

Non pressure condi-tion

Pressure condition 0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Low NPI ScoreHigh NPI Score

Ave

rage

Rati

ng

Narcissist’s Confidence

•“In general, I am good at performing under pressure” correlated

with NPI scores, r = . 264, p = .019

•“ I expect to perform better than (%) of past participants”

Non Pressure Condition

Pressure Condition

0204060

Low NPI ScoreHigh NPI Score

Perc

enta

ge

Main effect of condition was significant, F(1, 77) = 56.848, p > .000Main effect of NPI Score was significant, F(1, 77) = 8.376, p = .005

Narcissist's risk tendencies

•“What target zone do you plan to aim for?”

Main effect of condition was significant F(1, 77) = 25.927 p> .001

Non Pressure Condition

Pressure Condition

6.87

7.27.47.67.8

88.28.4

Low NPI Scores High NPI Scores

Mea

n Ta

rget

Zon

e

Overshooting Tendencies

Non Pressure Condition Pressure Condition0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.2

Low NPI ScoreHigh NPI Score

Prop

ortio

n of

Sho

ts o

vers

hot o

f tot

al

Average Performance

Non pressure Condi-tion

Pressure condition 3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

Low NPI ScoreHigh NPI Score

Aver

age

Scor

e (o

ut o

f 10)

“I think I performed better than (%) of participants”

•After slider game/test

Non Pressure Condition

Pressure Condition

0

10

20

30

40

50

Low NPI Scores High NPI Scores

Perc

enta

ge R

ating

Interaction between condition and NPI Score F(1, 76) = 5.065, p = .027

Implications

• In general, pressure causes performance to suffer

• Narcissism linked with confidence

• Narcissists view themselves as better under pressure even

when they have nothing to base this on

• Narcissists tend to overshoot more

What else is there?

This is only a narrow piece of the complex dataset, relationships being explored include…

• Hemispheric activation and approach/avoidance strategies

• Experimenter differences

• Anxiety and performance

• Gender differences

• Aim and overshooting (risk taking)