Ms Sarah Smith

Research

My research explores public understandings of narcissism and aims to address the following questions:

How do people conceptualise narcissism?

What traits and values to people associate with narcissism in others?

How do people visually represent narcissism?

How might one’s own narcissism influence perceptions of the trait in others?

My project also examines disparities between lay and academic understandings of narcissism with the aim of improving scientific communications.

My research uses a mixed-methods approach to understanding public perceptions of psychological phenomena, from thematic analysis (to explore lay conceptualisations of narcissism) to reverse correlation techniques (to generate visual representation of narcissism).

Thesis

The Public Image of Narcissism and its Social Consequences