Gender Differences and Narcissism: Behavioral Patterns of Elderly Men and Women

Abstract

In the current scenario, single individuals are an assorted and intricate group of persons and form an important chunk of the elderly population. From the perspective of sexuality, maturity, background, and livelihood they differ, and are as diverse as wedded individuals by communal background, edification, profession, and financial structure. In later life elderlies who are single are likely to face weaker social support networks than others. Findings given by Bushman and Baumeister (1998); Twenge and Campbell (2003) pinpoint the fact that aged unmarried subjects when they feel insulted or discarded burst out with violence. This makes it necessary to understand their personality profile from mental health perspective. Literature survey highlighted those differences in personality pattern comes due to gender variation also. Considering the survey of literature, the present study purports to make a comparative analysis between bachelor and spinster elderlies from the perspectives of ‘self-love’ that is narcissism. A sample of 60 elderlies (30 bachelors and 30 spinsters) was selected. After eliciting the level of psychopathology, level of narcissism 224was determined by administering Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) developed by Raskin and Hall (1979). Results analyzed in nine dimensions, namely; authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, entitlement, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, vanity, and overall narcissism. Findings indicated that elderly bachelor possess higher score on narcissism than spinster counterparts. Analysis of the quantitative result reveals that bachelors always express a kind of bossiness through their attitudes. They feel that they are invincible and feel discarded if anybody disrespects them (Macklin, 1983; Whitehurst, 1974; Riesman, 1981). By character though spinsters are well thought-out as a strong shoulder of the family but in veracity, they are stamped as encumber (Laslie, 1979; Glick and Spainer, 1980). This study would perhaps enrich knowledge regarding the understanding of the mental profiles of these elderly individuals, which would enable us to improve their lives qualitatively in the long run.