Self-Love or Self Preoccupation? Exploring Egocentricity in the Context of Marital Relationship

Narcissism and egocentrism were two constructs which appears to have shared a very fluid boundary, and are intricately linked with each other despite its varying implications in the field of clinical psychology and developmental psychology. From a clinical psychology’s perspective, Narcissism in which egocentricity is just one manifestation, pertains to personality attributes whereas for a developmental theorist, egocentrism is largely perceived as a consequence of cognitive immaturity. Nevertheless, there seems to have a point of convergence i.e., preoccupation with oneself and a failure to understand or relate with others and the world around and therefore interfering with our ability to form meaningful and satisfying relationships. The usage of these two terms lacks systematic formulation in research especially in the context of understanding relationships. Different researchers apply these terms in varied ways, which furthermore leads to difficulty in developing a comprehensive measure. The objectives of this paper are to briefly examine the construct of narcissism and egocentricity and to review existing literature on the available measures, finally to examine narcissism and egocentricity on the quality of marital relationship.