Master of Arts (Applied Psychology)

This study explored two major questions: (a) what is the relationship between narcissistic traits and the type of aggression displayed, and (b) does anxiety serve as a moderator between narcissism and aggression. This study examined specific traits of narcissism, mainly exploitativeness and superiority, and their relationship with different types of aggression, mainly proactive and reactive aggression, in an Asian sample (N=698) consisting of adolescents. Narcissistic exploitativeness was significantly and positively correlated to both proactive and reactive aggression, while narcissistic superiority was not significantly correlated to proactive and reactive aggression. Additionally, findings indicated that anxiety was a statistically significant moderator between exploitativeness and proactive aggression. However, the study found that anxiety did not moderate the association between exploitativeness and reactive aggression, superiority and proactive aggression, and superiority and reactive aggression. There are important clinical and theoretical implications to these findings especially for the development of more effective psychological intervention strategies designed to curb behavioral and adjustment problems in youths.