The article by Irwin (1995) entitled, Codependence, Narcissism, and Childhood Trauma, examines the issue of codependency as it relates to narcissism and childhood trauma. The authors wondered if childhood events had any bearing on codependency in one’s adult life. They also wanted to know if codependency and narcissism were related. In their research, the authors wanted to test the concept of codependency and how it is relevant to real-life situations. Codependency is a notion that describes persons living or having a relationship with people suffering from substance abuse and addictions. It might also involve a relationship addiction in which one party is highly dependent on another to cater to emotional, psychological, social, and physical needs. It posits that codependency in adulthood is predicted by childhood experiences living with alcoholic parents or traumatic experiences. However, childhood trauma has no bearing on the predictability of codependency in a person’s life.
The research was conducted in Australia with an adult population of 190 participants, where face-to-face administration of inventory questionnaires was carried out. The sample population involved 100 women and 90 men from the ages of 17-70 years. The administered inventories included the Codependency Inventory, Spann-Fischer Codependency Scale, Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale, and the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (Irwin 1995). The research found that childhood trauma was not a factor that can be used to predict the codependency of an individual in adulthood. Moreover, it also found no direct relationship between narcissism and codependency.
The research was comprehensive, using a reasonable sample size with various inventories. Therefore, its findings were in tandem with the methodology used and could be relied upon. However, applying so many inventories to participants could be confusing and have inaccurate results. Nonetheless, the interpretation of the results indicated that the research disapproved of the current concept of dependency and established new grounds in the study on codependency. However, I would like to incorporate the hypotheses used in the research in my proposal because of their relevance. I want to use a similar research method with fewer inventories to make it much more effective.
References
Irwin, H. 1995. Codependence, Narcissism, and Childhood Trauma. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 51, No, 5.