The Effects of National Collective Narcissism, Anomie, and Psychopathic Syndrome On National Siege Mentality

Abstract

Introduction

National siege mentality, underlying the national threat, is surely socially and politically determined. However, we assumed that certain social attitudinal constructs and psychological predisposition might underlie a belief system such as the concept of national siege mentality is.

Objectives

We tried to answer whether national collective narcissism, anomie, and psychopathic syndrome we developed may prove valuable in understanding the appearance and development of national siege mentality.

Aims

The aim of this research were: (1) To develop valid measure instruments that could be useful and efficient tools for assessing attitudinal and psychological tendencies in political-psychological and psychiatric research. (2) To find out the effects of national collective narcissism, anomie, and psychopathic syndrome on national siege mentality.

Methods

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to explore factorial and construct validity of the scales used in this research. A questionnaire was administered to randomly selected adults (N=544). Using structural equation modeling, this study examined the effects of exogenous variables in expressing national siege mentality.

Results

Structural model indicated that national collective narcissism, anomie, and psychopathic personality syndrome showed significant effects on national siege mentality (RMSEA=0.07, SRMR=0.05, CFI=0.96, NNFI=0.95).

Conclusions

The scales used in research proved to be reliable and valid measures of the attitudinal and personality constructs. Given the amount of variance of national siege mentality explained by exogenous variables (46 per cent), it is reasonable to assume that collective frustrations, political mistrust, and psychopathological predisposition may be underpinning the belief system labelled national siege mentality.