Narcissism, Shame, Masochism, and Object Relations: An Exploratory Correlational Study

A correlational study (N = 701) examined three measures of narcissism, a measure of shame, two measures of masochism, a measure of object relations, and a measure of social desirability. Moderate correlations were found for a core of constructs which have been described in the clinical and theoretical literature. These are narcissism, shame, object relations, and masochism. Narcissism seemed to divide into two different styles, a “phallic,” grandiose style and a narcissistically vulnerable style. Shame primarily accounted for the differences in these styles, correlating negatively with the grandiose style, positively with the more vulnerable style. The narcissistically vulnerable style correlated more with the core pathology measures; that is, object relations and masochism. Social desirability did not mediate the relationship between grandiose narcissism and shame. Only small univariate gender differences were found, but masochism was a better predictor of shame in women than was narcissism whereas there was little difference between masochism and narcissism for predicting shame in men.