The difference between narcissism and self-esteem

One often sees people who think that they are superior to others and that they deserve special treatment. If they don’t get the special treatment they expect, they may get angry or even violent. 

There are two hypotheses that explain why people become like this. The first is that narcissism is caused by parental over valuation of the person in early years. The second points a finger at parental warmth as the cause.

So researchers looked at children and their parents to settle the argument. This phenomenon emerges when the children are between 7 years to 12 years of age. So researchers collected data from 565 such children and their parents - data on narcissism, self esteem, parental over valuation and parental warmth as reported by the children and parents.

What they find it that there is indeed a connection between parental over valuation of the child and the child showing narcissistic behavior. They seem to internalize the parents’ perception and start believing that they are indeed superior to others.  

The researchers found that parental warmth, however, did not produce the same results as parental over valuation. Instead of being narcissistic, the children acquire high self-esteem and are confident about themselves, with parental warmth. 

For details see the latest issue of PNAS -  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/03/05/1420870112