درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Narcissism is an individual or group phenomenon in which individuals and groups become unhealthily enamored with them, perceiving themselves as superior to others. This condition has also infiltrated the realm of religion and spirituality, being recognized as one of the ills of religiosity. The present study aims to describe and explain religious narcissism and its components. It employs a descriptive-analytical method with a focus on the psychological foundations of narcissism to elucidate this phenomenon. The results indicate that it manifests in both religious individuals and groups or movements, leading them to issue reprimands and excommunications against others. The results demonstrate that despite its multiple components, the basis of the beliefs of the individual and the narcissistic religious movement centers around three core components: "Self-righteousness, absolutism, and exclusivism," which also encompass other components. Under the shadow of these three components—discussed in the psychology of narcissism under terms such as a sense of righteousness, superiority, self-centeredness, and exclusivity—narcissistic individuals and groups believe that in comparison to others, they are special and superior, that goodness is what they perceive it to be, and that evil is what they deny. They maintain an egocentric focus on themselves and their needs, convinced that everything is meant for them.

Although dyadic collaborations (DC) are sensitive to individual differences, the role of levels of equality (LoE) and gender disparity as potential mediators are largely unexplored. To address the research gap, this case study investigated whether symmetrical (equal and gender-matched) and asymmetrical (unequal and gender-mixed) peer interactions differ in terms of efficacy for morpho-syntactic development and learners’ retrospective reflections. Forty-three young learners were randomly assigned into symmetrical (equal) and asymmetrical (unequal) pairs and into dyads of various gender dispersal (matched and mixed). The learners’ behaviors and perceptions during and following the paired tasks were recorded via observation, field notes, focused-group discussion, and member-checking meetings. The results of the Mann-Whitney U-test and Friedman Test were as follows: DC was more effective than non-collaborative learning for both short-term and long-term structure and vocabulary learning. It was helpful for expert-expert and gender-matched dyads in both domains alike and for experts and novices in unequal pairs in the structure area only. It was ineffective, however, for novice-novice and cross-gender dyads. Among the recurrent themes in observation and interviews were overall preference to pair up with female partners, consensus on the advantage of DC for grammar judgment (structure) over fill-in-the-blank (vocabulary) tasks, the realization of DC as effective for promoting rapport and responsibility, experts’ willingness to pair with novices or work alone, novices’ tendency to work with experts, and role of personality traits as a substantial mediator. Based on the findings, several implications for research and practice are offered.