Traits, Motives, and Depressive Styles as Reflections of Agency and Communion

Saragovi, Carina; Aubé, Jennifer; Koestner, Richard; Zuroff, David C.

doi:10.1177/0146167202288001

Cited by 38 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 67 publications

(123 reference statements)

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“…As predicted, positive associations with psychological and physical well-being have been documented for agency (e.g., Aubé & Koestner, 1992;Aubé, Norcliffe, Craig, & Koestner, 1995;Saragovi, Aubé, Koestner, & Zuroff, 2002;Trudeau, Danoff-Burg, Revenson, & Paget, 2003;Zeldow, Clark, & Daugherty, 1985). Specifically, agency has been found to be related to reduced anxiety, reduced depression (Bruch, 2002;Holahan & Spence, 1980;Long, 1989), enhanced self-esteem (Whitley, 1983), and fewer health complaints (Robbins, Spence, & Clark, 1991).…”

mentioning

confidence: 75%

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Relations to Attitudes Toward Sex and Sexual Experiences

Mosher

Danoff–Burg

2005

Sex Roles

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This study was designed to examine relations among agentic and communal personality traits, attitudes toward sex, and sexual experiences in a sample of 202 undergraduates. As predicted, acceptance of interpersonal violence, with particular reference to intimate and sexual relationships, was positively associated with unmitigated agency. Among male participants, willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations was positively associated with unmitigated agency and negatively associated with communion and unmitigated communion. Among female participants, agency was positively related to satisfaction with current sexual and romantic relationships. These results partially support Helgeson's (1994) theoretical model that links unmitigated agency to relational conflict and instability and links communion to emotional bonding and commitment.KEY WORDS: unmitigated agency; unmitigated communion; sexual relationships; personality.Helgeson (1994) developed a theoretical model of the relations among biological sex, gender-linked personality traits, and physical and psychological health. A basic assumption of this model is that men and women are socialized to adopt somewhat different personality characteristics and social roles and that these differences act to enhance or undermine well-being. According to this model, men are more likely to develop personality traits related to agency, which is defined as a focus on the self and autonomy. Conversely, women are more likely to develop personality traits related to communion, which is defined as a focus on other people and relationships. The concepts of agency and communion were borrowed from Bakan (1966) who characterized them as fundamental modalities of human existence. Furthermore, Helgeson theorized that agency is related to men's superior mental health in comparison with women, whereas communion is related to women's superior relational outcomes in comparison with men.

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mentioning

confidence: 75%

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Relations to Attitudes Toward Sex and Sexual Experiences

Mosher

Danoff–Burg

2005

Sex Roles

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“…In a similar vein, there is no clear evidence that communion is positively associated with psychological health. Communion may be related to positive affect (Saragovi et al, 2002), but it is also related to distress (Aube, Fichman, Saltaris, & Koestner, 2001). …”

Section: Normal Narcissism and Psychological Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are normal narcissists psychologically healthy?: Self-esteem matters.

Sedikides

Rudich

Gregg

et al. 2004

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

592

429

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Five studies established that normal narcissism is correlated with good psychological health. Specifically, narcissism is (a) inversely related to daily sadness and dispositional depression, (b) inversely related to daily and dispositional loneliness, (c) positively related to daily and dispositional subjective well-being as well as couple well-being, (d) inversely related to daily anxiety, and (e) inversely related to dispositional neuroticism. More important, self-esteem fully accounted for the relation between narcissism and psychological health. Thus, narcissism is beneficial for psychological health only insofar as it is associated with high self-esteem. Explanations of the main and mediational findings in terms of response or social desirability biases (e.g., defensiveness, repression, impression management) were ruled out. Supplementary analysis showed that the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and psychological health were preponderantly linear.

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“…Some characteristics of narcissism, including high agency and self-enhancement, are often viewed as indicators of better adjustment (Taylor & Brown, 1988;Saragovi, Aube, Koestner, & Zuroff, 2002). Others, particularly the coupling of interpersonal exploitation with interpersonal vulnerability, point in the opposite direction (Rhodewalt & Morf, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narcissism and well‐being: A longitudinal perspective

Zuckerman

O'Loughlin

2009

Euro J Social Psych

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This study used a longitudinal design to examine both concurrent and prospective relations between narcissism and several indicators of well-being in a non-clinical population. Consistent with previous research, the concurrent analyses showed that (1) narcissism was related to greater well-being with self-esteem fully mediating the association, and (2) narcissism was related to greater self-esteem contingency on negative interpersonal events. The prospective analyses showed that greater well-being predicted an increase in narcissism; however, higher narcissism did not predict changes in well-being. Lower affective reactivity to negative interpersonal events also predicted an increase in narcissism. The ''would-be'' narcissist appears to be a person reporting feeling well and not overly concerned by an aversive social environment. However, narcissism does not appear to predict future benefits for one's well-being.

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Traits, Motives, and Depressive Styles as Reflections of Agency and Communion

Cited by 38 publications

References 67 publications

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Relations to Attitudes Toward Sex and Sexual Experiences

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Relations to Attitudes Toward Sex and Sexual Experiences

Are normal narcissists psychologically healthy?: Self-esteem matters.

Narcissism and well‐being: A longitudinal perspective

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