Graduation Year

2022

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Stacey Wood

Reader 2

Sara Masland

Reader 3

Jennifer Ma

Rights Information

© 2022 Sophie R Wilks

Abstract

The present study concerns the neurobiology of personality disorders. It was only quite recently that narcissism became a topic of conversation, and even for non-academics, it has become an increasingly common concept to discuss (Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010; Zajenkowski et al., 2018). Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a serious disorder that can be deeply harmful for the patient as well as those closest to them. NPD will be evaluated using a more dynamic model for NPD diagnosis than the DSM-V suggests, referred to as the dimensional model. This study will measure hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-DG), a biomarker correlated with oxidative stress (Yoshikawa and Naito, 2002). After completing an online questionnaire, participants will be divided into groups based on degree and type of narcissistic behaviors, at which point each will talk with a trained psychologist who will confirm or reject a diagnosis. It is expected that those with higher rates of NPD than healthy & unhealthy controls will generally have a higher level of 8-OH-DG in the bloodstream. Furthermore, between the subtypes of NPD, those with higher levels of vNPD will have slightly higher levels of oxidative stress than those with more gNPD traits. The data offered by this potential study would have wide implications across a number of populations and samples by building a base for biological research on NPD.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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