Ethical Aspects of Psychologists’ Professional Self-Presentation in Social Networks in the Context of Narcissism

Abstract. Subject relevance. The prevalence of narcissism in modern society is closely related to an increased incidence of narcissistic motivation in people seeking psychological help. According to the hypothesis of the current study, this motivation can be enhanced and exploited by psychologists in their self-presentations, contrary to ethical norms and principles of concern for the client's well-being. At the same time, this issue has not been researched so far.
Study design. The study included two stages. At the first stage, aimed at creating a typology of psychologists' self-presentations in social media, 30 psychologists’ profiles were selected randomly. Then, the authors of the article carried out a phenomenological analysis of their content which helped them propose a typology including 5 different types (“Professional”, “Star”, “Perfection”, “Magician”, “Liar”). Then, 30 more profiles were randomly selected to verify the created typology through an independent expert appraisal. Consistency of expert evaluations was achieved for 28 profiles, and the original author's typology was reduced to two types with the conventional names “Professional” and “Tempter”. The second stage assessed the motivation of potential clients whom the profile content addressed, and the compliance of this content with professional ethical norms. To this end, two more independent experts were asked to evaluate 28 profiles selected at the first stage.
Study Results. According to experts' assessments, the overwhelming majority (85.71%) of the selected 28 self-presentations belong to the “Tempter” type, which is characterized by addressing clients' narcissistic motivation, as well as non-compliance with the following ethical norm, “The self-presentation does not exaggerate the effectiveness of the services provided by the psychologist, contains no statements about the superiority of professional skills and applied techniques”.
Conclusions. A significant proportion (more than 75%) of randomly selected psychologists’ self-presentations in social media addresses the narcissistic motivation of potential clients and is associated with a violation of the ethical norm concerning appropriate presentation of the effectiveness of services and methods used.

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