We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists

An interesting read from Dr. Keith Ablow. Ablow is “an American psychiatrist, expert witness, New York Times best-selling author of fiction and nonfiction, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical School and television personality who hosted a national, daily syndicated talk show.”

He also writes for Fox News.

A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing.

Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis, is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years.

This data is not unexpected.

Read the entire thing.

Posted in

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

14 Comments

  1. stinkfoot on January 9, 2013 at 11:09 am

    In this political and economic environment would it qualify as socially engineered chaos?



  2. Dimsdale on January 9, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    You mean ?bama really has been a role model?
    ?
    Ugh.



    • Lynn on January 9, 2013 at 4:18 pm

      Ha, sad to say President Obama has been a role model for “children” up to age 40. They see him take million dollar vacations, play golf and give speeches. He lets Congress pass his Obamanations and makes fun of the nerds in Congress who do want to solve problems. Why should they work, their role model doesn’t. Now for the Ugh is that for the Fauxcohantas Senator, in your neck of the woods?



    • Dimsdale on January 11, 2013 at 10:03 am

      I apologize for my state (I do that a lot!), although my area was all pro Brown.
      ?
      Liawatha, for all her ill gotten academic stature, is continually being shown to be a lockstep soldier for the left, repeatedly limited to spouting her talking points over and over again.? A good rubber stamper for the left and nothing else.



  3. Plainvillian on January 9, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    Bring back dodge ball.? Isn’t this the generation that was always ‘special’ and got trophies for showing up for the games where nobody kept score?? Why wouldn’t they be narcissistic?



    • Lynn on January 9, 2013 at 4:34 pm

      Heck how about spelling bees, geography bees, history bees and debates. Competition on any level is great. We don’t need to limit it to sports. Teach these darn kids to think and have the joy of winning. Also, it is important to lose gracefully and learn to come back stronger. I am so glad my kids are grown. They grew up and became mature independent successful adults. Thankfully, before we had an elitist, immature and lazy President to follow. ?



  4. JBS on January 9, 2013 at 5:28 pm

    It is all art of ?bama’s master(ful) plan to Socialize everyone and spread equality.
    ?
    How sad.
    ?
    This only goes toward my thesis that the low information voter is also low intellect.
    ?
    Would ?bama’s rallying cry be, ” Ho hum, stupid and lazy people of the world unite or, whatever?”



  5. StudentVoice on January 9, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    I think it is kind of interesting that the same people who raised these “narcissistic” children, who have TOO MUCH self worth, are the people who are criticizing them. Who’s fault is it that children were given ribbons for coming in second? the children? The president? Further more, how absurd is it to criticize people for having too much self worth? Is it bad for people to have an inflated “drive to succeed”? Would you rather have a work force which thinks nothing is possible? Would you rather have workers who are content to just flip burgers, or stay in a dead end job? Or is it better to have this generation of college graduates that has the desire to change the world? We can look at other factors which have changed since 1984 (the length of a comprehensive study) : The percentage of college students who need remedial help in?English?has approximately halved, the percentage who will need remedial help in college math has decreased by 25%, the percentage who take a language course in high school has increase 20%, 19% more students are taking arts and music, 11% more are taking biological science, 9% more are taking math. In addition to students being more confident we could also talk about the increase expectations of…



    • kateinmaine on January 10, 2013 at 5:03 pm

      would love to see your source material, os.? re english/math–all evidence to the contrary in application, but suspect that any ‘reduction’ in remedial assistance in college stems from 2 things–first, dropping the core curriculum requirement and second, the advent of the fabulous revenue-generators known as ‘schools of basic studies’ at most colleges/universities, which serve as another 2 years of high school to get the ‘student’ to a level to segue into an actual degree program.? a fabulous study came out of harvard several years ago–in a nutshell it deduced that people are being educated beyond their intelligence and this will have a profoundly negative impact on society, but i digress.? back on point, the most telling proof of the wildly fantastical nature of this generation is the reporting from the business world on those who are actually hired.? no skills, no coping mechanisms, no idea of? (end of part 1)



    • kateinmaine on January 10, 2013 at 5:04 pm

      (part 2) how to function independently, no ability to take personal responsibility or criticism, no desire/willingness to work hard, no concept of reality on any level.? change the world?? too late.? btw, ‘too much’ or ‘inflated’ anything needs to be monitored–there is a fine line between ‘outsized’ and ‘delusional’.? it would be easy–and justified– to blame 80 years of liberal social policy for this.? won’t help, but you might feel better.? the first step is acknowledging the problem. . .



  6. Linda Mae on January 9, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    Most countries divide their kids into 3 groups @ the 5th grade level.? Only a few go into the gymnasium high school – 12 years, then to university.? Others graduate at 11th grade or 10 th grade:? business or work study levels. So, there is no comparison to other countries regarding college participation.? Punished by Rewards came out years ago – and ignored by many education pundits.? The still believe in the Lake Wobegone mantra – where children are above average.? Parents blame teachers for low grades – rather than tell their kids they will help them improve.? Teachers with high expectations are plagued by parents who don’t want their kids challenged.. It’s sad.? Years ago, I read a study that concluded Asian kids claimed the test was difficult and they did poorly and American kids stated the test was easy and they aced it.? Guess which group did better?? I’ve shared this with parents and now with students ready to take their GED.



  7. JollyRoger on January 10, 2013 at 10:29 am

    True knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance; while the left know so much that isn’t so!



  8. Dimsdale on January 11, 2013 at 10:10 am

    Actually, when you look at it critically, this is the reason that the young are so pro ?bama: they essentially have the maturity of three year olds, with their demands for gratification, freebies, stamping their feet (violently, I might add; the recent temper tantrums called “occupy wall st.” are cases in point) and unable to be self reliant with support from the liberals (it takes a village and “you didn’t build that).
    ?
    I am sure it is pure coincidence that this lack of maturity etc. can be directly correlated with the liberal takeover of academia.? /sarc



  9. JollyRoger on January 13, 2013 at 2:24 pm

    Could it be said that Napoleon had an Obama-complex?



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