Social Psychology
The author of this report will be addressing four high-level topics during the course of this report. In order, those topics will be narcissism, self-esteem/self-worth, a definition and discussion of the self-efficacy theory of Albert Bendura and the inferring of traits as defined by the wider paradigm of the Fundamental Attribution Theory. The body of work on these topics is fairly large but there will be an analysis and reaction to specific articles or, in the case of self-esteem and self-worth, an image. These terms get thrown around a lot and this ends up resulting in a lot of hyperbole and other unsupported (or unsupportable) assertions, there is a lot of credence and veracity to these terms and any informed person can see real-world examples without looking too hard.
Analysis
Narcissism
When it comes to narcissism, there is an article that the author of this report has been asked to assess and react to. The crux of the article is that many therapists and professionals believe that Donald Trump has what is known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. One thing that was noted right at the top of the article was that the author, Ms. Kreger, had already blogged about the matter before and she had her hand slapped, so to speak, by the mental health community for diagnosing a public figure. The author of this report would echo that because only a person with direct and personal contact with a patient would have the ability to completely and accurately assess whether a person is truly in another world when it comes to their self-perception or if there is something else going on. The author of this report holds that it is entirely possible that Trump's speeches, braggadocio and so forth is just pandering and calculated in advance rather than being the symptom of some mental disease. Trump surely and obviously thinks very highly of himself but such a status and situation is necessary for someone to be in the public eye and be in big business such as Trump is. Kreger further confirms the wisdom in keeping all of this in mind as she notes she is not a therapist (Kreger, 2015).
Another statement in the article that is an eyebrow-raiser is the assertion that narcissists are not comfortable with the truth. The author of this report would beg to differ with that as this is a calling card for many a politician. For example, Hillary Clinton was recently quoted as saying she "believes" she tells the truth. Having to offer that qualifying word is extremely damning to anyone that pays attention to the way people phrase thing. Rather than clearly and bluntly saying "yes I do" or something else simple and to the point, she had to throw the word "believe" in there. To be sure, Hillary and her party do not monopolize this practice as Donald is doing the same precise thing in his own way. The point is that people in positions like politicians are trying to votes and every single syllable is typically very calculated and controlled. What a politician says and what is really going through their mind can be (and often is) two entirely different things (Kreger. 2015).
One could liken this to sociopathy or Machiavellianism. The latter is simply the idea that everything is a means to an end. If something can be done to improve one's position and power, it is typically worth doing. One may put limits on that or they may not but that is a rather precarious position to take from an ethical standpoint because it can very easily lead to deception and softening of what is really going on. Politicians also do the inverse all the time and that is engaging in demagoguery about something a politician said. They will take a statement out of context or will represent that it is a coded message. A common example would be the use of the word "thug." Many assert that thug is a "code word" against black people and the people saying it may as well be saying the n-word. However, thug literally means "violent criminal" and that is the way it should be interpreted unless there is proof positive that something else is afoot. The point is that some people are legitimately deranged to the point of being narcissistic or in possession of other or different mental defects. However, to assume that Trump is not control...
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