The impact of pathological narcissism on change in symptoms, life satisfaction, and work and social impairment in psychodynamic group therapy for perfectionism
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Psychology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Ge, Sabrina Yue Jia
issued: 2023-08-14T19:43:51Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Background: Several decades of theory suggest that pathological narcissism may limit psychotherapy success, but empirical evidence for such theories is limited and mixed. In addition, despite theoretical and empirical associations between pathological narcissism and perfectionism, no studies thus far have investigated the impact of pathological narcissism on psychotherapy outcome for patients with perfectionism. Thus, this study aimed to extend past research by investigating whether pre-treatment pathological narcissism led to smaller pre- to post-treatment reductions in 1) symptom severity, 2) life satisfaction and, 3) work and social functioning in a sample of patients with perfectionism undergoing group psychodynamic psychotherapy. Method: This sample was drawn from the UBC Perfectionism Treatment Study (Hewitt et al., 2023) and consisted of 80 treatment-seeking adults with elevated perfectionism. Patients underwent 12 sessions of psychodynamic group psychotherapy for perfectionism and completed self-report measures of pathological narcissism at pre-treatment and of symptom severity, life satisfaction, and work and social impairment at pre- and post-treatment. Results: Contrary to expectations, multilevel and multiple regression analyses indicated that pre-treatment pathological narcissism did not significantly predict post-treatment changes in symptom severity, life satisfaction or work and social impairment. Additional analyses showed that these findings held even when vulnerable and grandiose dimensions of pathological narcissism were analyzed separately. Conclusions: Despite longstanding theoretical and clinical accounts on the perniciousness of pathological narcissism in the clinical context, these results, taken together with past findings, suggest that pathological narcissism may not be associated with poorer psychotherapy outcomes in certain contexts, such as in the case of psychodynamic group psychotherapy for perfectionism. Future research should invest…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85456
note: THE IMPACT OF PATHOLOGICAL NARCISSISM ON CHANGE IN SYMPTOMS, LIFE SATISFACTION, AND WORK AND SOCIAL IMPAIRMENT IN PSYCHODYNAMIC GROUP THERAPY FOR PERFECTIONISM by SABRINA YUE JIA GE B.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2020 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2023 © Sabrina Yue Jia Ge, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: The impact of pathological narcissism on change in symptoms, life satisfaction, and work and social impairment in psychodynamic group therapy for perfectionism submitted by Sabrina Yue Jia Ge in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology Examining Committee: Paul L. Hewitt, Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisor Frances Chen, Associate Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member David Kealy, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Background: Several decades of theory suggest that pathological narcissism may limit psychotherapy success, but empirical evidence for such theories is limited and mixed. In addition, despite theoretical and empirical associations between pathological narcissism and perfectionism, no studies thus far have investigated the impact of pathological narcissism on psychotherapy outcome for patients with perfectionism. Thus, this study aimed to extend past research by investigating whether pre-treatment pathological narcissism led to smaller pre- to post-treatment reductions in 1) symptom severity, 2) life satisfaction and, 3) work and social impairment in a sample of patients with perfectionism undergoing group psychodynamic psychotherapy. Method: This sample was drawn from the UBC Perfectionism Treatment Study (Hewitt et al., 20…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435186
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hewitt, Paul L. (Paul Louis)
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85456