Selfie and Narcissism: Investigating the relationship between Selfie-Taking and Narcissistic Personality Traits. A Quantitative Study of Undergraduate Students in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v5i1.479Keywords:
Selfies, Narcissism, Undergraduate Students, NPI-16Abstract
The current study was conducted to identify the relationship between selfies and narcissism and the impact of narcissism on selfie-taking and posting behavior. It also attempts to find out gender differences in these two variables among the undergraduate students of Peshawar. Narcissism is defined as an exaggerated sense of one's own importance and lack of empathy towards others. Selfies are defined as photographs of yourself that you click with smart phone. The age range of the sample was 18-25. Simple random sampling was used, a sample of 200 (100 males and 100 females) from five private universities in Peshawar was selected. The Narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) and a demographic and informed consent sheet were administered. Statistical analysis through Pearson correlation revealed that there is a significant relationship between selfies and regression analysis revealed that narcissism has a confirmed impact on selfie behavior. Through the t-test, it was elaborated that male students are higher in both selfies and narcissism. The results of the study supported the proposed hypotheses. Future researchers may explore the impact of spirituality, religiosity, and mental health issues on selfie behavior and narcissism. Additionally, investigating effective therapies for individuals severely affected by narcissism related to selfie-taking is recommended.
References
Ames, D. R., Rose, P., & Anderson, C. P. (2006). The NPI-16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(4), 440–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.03.002
Arpaci, I., Yalçın, S. B., Baloğlu, M., & Kesici, Ş. (2018). The moderating effect of gender in the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 134, 71-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.06.006
Bhachech, J. T. (2021). Selfie and narcissism in young adults. TAZKIYA: Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.15408/tazkiya.v9i2.21558
Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking Web sites. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(10), 1303–1314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208320061
Fox, J., & Rooney, M. C. (2015). The Dark Triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 161–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.017
Freud, S. (1914). On narcissism.
Grijalva, E., Newman, D. A., Tay, L., Donnellan, M. B., Harms, P. D., Robins, R. W., & Yan, T. (2015). Gender differences in narcissism: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 141(2), 261–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038231
Halpern, D., Valenzuela, S., & Katz, J. E. (2016). “Selfie-ists” or “Narci-selfiers”? A cross-lagged panel analysis of selfie taking and narcissism. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 98–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.019
Henschke, E., & Sedlmeier, P. (2023). What is self-love? Redefinition of a controversial construct. The Humanistic Psychologist, 51(3), 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000266
Keenan, V. (2014, February 19). The selfie revolution boosts selfie-steem. The Outlook. https://outlook.monmouth.edu/2014/02/the-selfie-revolution-boosts-selfie-steem/
Maheshwari, S. K., & Preksha, S. (2018). Internet addiction: A growing concern in India. Indian Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 15(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.4103/2231-1505.262510
Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 13(4), 357–364. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0257
Moore, A. (2020, April 27). There Are At Least 8 Types of Narcissists — Which Ones Are Dangerous? Mindbodygreen. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/types-of-narcissists
Näcke, P. (1899). Critical remarks on the chapter on normal and pathological sexuality. Archiv f. Psychiatrie 32, 356–386 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02036207
Qiu, L., Lu, J., Yang, S., Qu, W., & Zhu, T. (2015). What does your selfie say about you? Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 443–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.032
Quinodoz, J.-M. (2010). How translations of Freud’s writings have influenced French psychoanalytic thinking. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 91(4), 695–716. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-8315.2008.00117.x
Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 890–902. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.890
Reyes, M. E. S., Aquino, K. F. B. T., De Leon, C. J. O., Muñoz, A. P. P., & Davis, R. D. (2021). Me, myself, & I: Narcissistic personality traits and selfie behavior among selected Filipinos. North American Journal of Psychology, 23(2), 255–272.
Sakthivel, A., & Thangamuthu, P. (2019). A study on frequent selfie users and narcissism among college students. Indian Journal of Psychiatric Social Work, 10(2), 31. https://doi.org/10.29120/ijpsw.2019.v10.i2.148
Saleem, N., Farrukh, M., & Sadiq, S. (2023). Grandiose narcissism and social media usage: An exploratory study using the narcissist Personality Inventory. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 334–343. https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/15126
Seidman, G. (2015). What is the Real Link between Selfies and Narcissism? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-encounters/201508/what-is-the-real-link-between-selfies-and-narcissism
Sorokowski, P., Sorokowska, A., Oleszkiewicz, A., Frackowiak, T., Huk, A., & Pisanski, K. (2015). Selfie posting behaviors are associated with narcissism among men. Personality and Individual Differences, 85, 123–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.004
Sung, Y., Lee, J.-A., Kim, E., & Choi, S. M. (2016). Why we post selfies: Understanding motivations for posting pictures of oneself. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 260–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.032
Umar, S., Malik, N. I., Tariq, N., & Tariq, A. (2023). Relationship between Narcissism and Selfie Posting Behavior; Mediating Role of Loneliness and Self-esteem among Adolescents. IUB Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 172-181. https://doi.org/10.52461/ijoss.v5i2.2390
Wickel, T. M. (2015). Narcissism and social networking sites: the act of taking selfies. Elon journal of undergraduate research in communications, 6(1). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1138
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s). Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
SSR's Editorial Board shares the vision of providing free access to information, education, and science for everyone, thus promoting its content through an OPEN ACCESS POLICY, fulfilling the DOAJ definition of open access. The JSSR adheres to an Open Access and Copyright Licensing Policy based on the belief that making research freely accessible to the public promotes greater global knowledge sharing.
The JSSR uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The authors who apply and publish in JSSR consent to abide by the copyright policy set out in the Creative Commons 4.0 license (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license).
- Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s).
- Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
While "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself."
