Researchers discover new personality construct that describes the tendency to see oneself as a victim

[miri1985]

I realise that this isn't technically a feminist issue but I thought it was an interesting article given that there has been a lot of talk about hate crimes relying on the perception of the victim rather than objectivity or intent

Also it implies its the primary caregivers' (who will majority of times be the Mother) fault

"Study authors Rahav Gabay and team describe how the social world is satiated with interpersonal transgressions that are often unpleasant and seemingly unwarranted, such as being interrupted when speaking. While some people can easily brush off these moments of hurt, others tend to ruminate over them and persistently paint themselves as a victim. The authors present this feeling of being the victim as a novel personality construct that influences how people make sense of the world around them."

"TIV is a consistent and stable trait that involves four dimensions: moral elitism, a lack of empathy, the need for recognition, and rumination*"

• Rumination in psychology is different to how it would be used in normal parlance, in this context it means "the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions"

www.psypost.org/2020/12/researchers-identify-a-new-personality-construct-that-describes-the-tendency-to-see-oneself-as-a-victim-58753

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886920303238

Interesting. Sounds appropriate to consider in some of the discussions here.

Hmm. I’m a bit suspicious of anything that frames this as an inherent trait rather than a viewpoint or behaviour that can be shifted.

I have certainly met people who fit that description.

Whatever its cause, there seems to be an epidemic of it among the young woke professionally offended trans rights brigade!

Describes my mother, and sister, for sure

I recognise this, however I don't think it explains why it is so prominent now and am suspicious of placing focus on caregivers (shades of refrigerator mum and autism). But I do think victimhood like anxiety, paranoia are all normal feelings taken to an extreme.
My sister always used to assume someone was snubbing them when they didn't respond to a greeting in the street, I always assumed they just didn't see me, or there mind was miles away. It's another reason we shouldn't use feelings and perceptions alone in hate non crimes

@Lumene

Hmm. I’m a bit suspicious of anything that frames this as an inherent trait rather than a viewpoint or behaviour that can be shifted.

I agree. Surely this is something that can be recognised and changed through time using something like cbt.

I used to have a friend like this. Everyone was against her and she took offence at the smallest things, yet could never recognise that she was in the wrong. I am the opposite and have the hide of a rhino so used to try ad get her to wake up and see reality. She did get better over time but it was an exhausting friendship.

Goes along with this article areomagazine.com/2018/07/08/no-you-dont-have-a-disorder-you-have-feelings/ which someone linked to on here earlier in the week.

Mind you, it's nothing new. It must be knocking on 20 years ago I had to go on a course called "Assume Positive Intent" - I say me, I mean the whole team There were some agonising role plays along the lines of "Bob says "gee thanks for that" at the end of the phone call - does he 1. mean 'thank you' and has used the "gee" as he is from Georgia, US, or 2. Is he actually being totally sarcastic? Bob was devastated to think that all the UK team thought he was permanently sarcastic Unfortunately Bob then became permanently sarcastic and it became increasingly difficult to assume his positive intent.

@SonEtLumiere

It would be interesting to see demographic variations.

I wonder if it was a solution in search of data? How does it fit in with other personality traits and assessments?

So many questions

I have a copy of the paper but I'm not a psychologist or even anything to do with a science discipline so I can't really offer insights into how good a study it is etc.

Demographic wise, they seem to have used a good age range but given that they only used people from one country and one religion, it will be interesting to see it if its recreated across a more diverse set of people

"Participants were 249 Jewish-Israelis (142 women; Mage = 33.55, SDage = 16.22). In this and all other studies, participants' age ranged from 18 to 73. Using a snowballing technique, 77 participants completed a hard copy of the scale in small groups.
These included students from different academic campuses, and
employees in different workplaces in Israel to which we had access.
These participants were diverse, and came from various academic
programs and workplaces. Their sole common denominator was their
willingness to volunteer for this study. The remaining 182 participants
completed the questionnaire administered by an online survey
company. There were no differences between the two samples in
terms of the means of the items, the loadings of the items on the
different factors, or their demographics. In this and subsequent studies we recruited participants through the Midgam Project (MP), which is an opt-in panel that includes over 50,000 panelists aged 17 years and older in Israel. Unless indicated otherwise, participants that took part in one study were not allowed to take part in other studies. In exchange for participation, the online participants received 7 Israeli Shekels (ILS; the equivalent of US$2.00)."

Solution in search of data? They seem to have gone into this current study after a literature review and some interviews and then structured the 4 studies around investigating their hypotheses

"The current studies were designed to investigate the construct of
TIV, its correlates, and its consequences. In part 1, we test the hypothetical four-dimensional construct of TIV through exploratory factor analysis (EFA; Study 1A) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; Study 1B). In Study 1C we examine the stability of the TIV over time (testretest reliability), and its effect on the anticipation of being hurt by others."

How does it fit in with other personality traits and assessments?

"Two dispositional traits related to TIV have been examined in the
past; namely, narcissism and self-esteem, and deserve comment. Similar to TIV, narcissism and self-esteem both involve a general focus on the self and a strong sense of entitlement (Stronge, Cichocka, & Sibley, 2016). In addition, narcissism, but not self-esteem, was found to be associated with experiencing ambiguous situations as more hurtful and involved showing more hostility toward others (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; McCullough, Emmons, Kilpatrick, & Mooney, 2003).
Furthermore, we argue that the self-esteem of high-TIV individuals
would be unstable, based on the relationship between TIV, anxious
attachment, external locus of control, and sensitivity to imagined or
actual offenses. An unstable self-image also characterizes narcissism (Rhodewalt, Madrian, & Cheney, 1998) and leads, in turn, to vulnerability to threats to the self (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998).
We also posit that both narcissism and TIV are characterized by
vulnerability to threats to the self, but that the content of these threats would be different. Narcissists present themselves to the world as strong, capable, and talented (and relatedly, differently from TIV, narcissism was found to be associated with extraversion; Stronge et al., 2016). Therefore, threats are related to anything undermining their grandiosity and superiority, such as extraordinary abilities, achievements or positive qualities. In contrast, the self-presentation of high-TIV individuals is that of a weak victim, who has been hurt and is therefore in need of protection; a considerate and conscientious person who must face a cruel and abusive world. Threats to high-TIV individuals are related to anything that can undermine their self-image of moral superiority; or elicit doubts from their environment as to whether the offense occurred, the intensity of the offense, or their exclusivity as victims. These, and additional hypotheses should be examined in future research."

How does this fit in with narcissism? Must be some overlaps. Interesting though.

Using a snowballing technique, 77 participants completed a hard copy of the scale in small groups.

Snowballing is a pretty weak methodology when it comes to extrapolating findings to the general population. I would say this is interesting but the subject needs further more robust research before anything can really be drawn from it.

Very interesting. Fits with some things I see.

What was the link to parenting? I did some handwringing and heavy duty thinking when bringing mine up, about how I handled their behaviour.

Hmm. I’m a bit suspicious of anything that frames this as an inherent trait rather than a viewpoint or behaviour that can be shifted

I agree with this.

When I was younger I consistently thought of myself as a victim I think it was a habit I had developed during childhood and I was unaware I was doing it. It was pointed out to me by some kind soul in my late 20s and over quite a long period of time I managed to stop myself from doing it. In hindsight it had been really harmful to me and I am so glad to be free of it. I think this is the big problem with identity politics. It encourages young people to think of themselves as victims. I think this includes feminism in some of its forms.

@Signalbox v similar for me, I learnt the behaviour as a child and really only recognised it in my 20’s/30’s when surrounded by people who weren’t like that. My mother is a prime example of someone who looks for offence, someone ignoring her greeting would be considered a grave snub.
I still find myself slipping into it at times but try very hard to fight it. I think and hope its a behaviour that can be changed.

Interesting. Although I see other elements often in these kind of social responses, having grown up with several family members with autism across several generations, some of whom have difficulty understanding other people's motives and tend to respond with anger and become stuck in those feelings when someone has done something they perceive as intentional, and trouble understanding that something that has upset them is not someone's fault. Theory of mind: I have been screamed at on many occasions for not knowing something I hadn't actually been told by the person, which they then perceived my not listening or not caring or doing something to intentionally sabotage them, which caused them hurt and distress. When children (and one child now): some had huge distress and anger if they were treated by others in a way they do not like, but a belief that they are fully entitled to treat others this way, including physically hurting someone who has annoyed them. Great concern about others keeping their personal rules with great anger and distress if those rules were broken, and often hearing someone's 'no' or a boundary, even mild every day ones as a personal rejection, causing distress, overwhelm and anger.

Neurodiversity plays a large part in this, it's rarely considered as a factor, nor is it easy to talk about the difference in experience on the side of both people involved in one of these situations.

Identifying it doesn't mean you can't treat it, presumably, with behavioural support/advice.

Good point, picklemewalnuts.

Yes, further research is needed, but definitely interesting. I certainly have seen elements of this in some abusers who see themselves as constantly being "done wrong" by the targets of their abuse, no matter how innocent the other person's actions.

Really glad you managed to change your behaviour, Signalbox. It can be hard to watch people you care about generating a state of perpetual grievance and misery because they take everything as a slight.

Crumpetstoday yes I agree it’s easy to slip back into. One has to be ever vigilant :)

MichelleofzeResistance that’s interesting what you say about autism. I’m not diagnosed with autism but I have multiple traits and if I was a child now I wonder if I would be.

Really glad you managed to change your behaviour, Signalbox. It can be hard to watch people you care about generating a state of perpetual grievance and misery because they take everything as a slight

Me too Shedbuilder. I was also an extreme sulker and those two things combined must have made me so unpleasant to be around. I know sulking in particular is considered to be an abusive behaviour but honestly it was the hardest thing to change.

This probably affects young people more, since teenagers are often hyper-sensitive, and I'm guessing some people grow out of it as they learn to cope better with life (and also adults tend to be nicer to one another on the whole, so there'd be less bullying and nastiness to cause scars).

I think this thread is rather appropriate to share this SandyDrawsBadly cartoon...