On the Measure and Mismeasure of Narcissism: A Response to "Measures of Narcissism and Their Relations to DSM-5 Pathological Traits: A Critical Reappraisal"

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Studied the Long Way: Predicting Change in Narcissistic Pathology During College

OBJECTIVE

Otto F. Kernberg pioneered the description, understanding, and treatment of pathological narcissism. Narcissism has emerged as a clinical construct of considerable interest in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis and has often been featured in the literature on personality and social psychology. Considerable discussion in recent years has focused on whether levels of narcissism seen among young adults have been increasing. Nearly all of that discussion has been focused on changes in successive cohorts in normative (normal-range) expressions of narcissism. No direct prospective longitudinal study of the same individuals has assessed for pathological narcissism during college, the period that has been the specific focus of such lively debate. This study aimed to fill that gap in the literature.

METHODS

This multiwave, longitudinal study explored pathological narcissism during college by enrolling first-year undergraduate students (N=250) from the Longitudinal Study of Personality Disorders and by using individual growth curve (IGC) analysis. Participants were assigned to either a possible personality disorder or no personality disorder group, according to results from the International Personality Disorder Examination.

RESULTS

By the third wave of assessments, 16% of the sample received a probable or definite diagnosis of at least one axis II personality disorder. IGC analysis revealed that pathological narcissism declined across the first 4 years of college. Personality predictors of this pattern of change are also discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the need for a fine-grained prospective study of the same participants over time to illuminate patterns of change in narcissism.

Investigating Measurement Invariance of the Psychological Entitlement Scale – Grandiose-Based and Vulnerable-Based

Abstract. Entitlement has attracted interest across various social science disciplines due to its broad connection to selfish decision-making outcomes and mental health. Although unidimensional entitlement scales have been widely used, these scales conflate vulnerable- and grandiose-based entitlement forms. The Psychological Entitlement Scale – Grandiose-Based and Vulnerable-Based (PES-G/V) was recently devised to measure these entitlement forms. Prior work has supported the structure and construct validity of the PES-G/V, but no research has addressed the measurement invariance (MI) of the PES-G/V. Hence, we examined MI in relation to gender, two popular sampling frames in psychology studies (US MTurk participants and US college participants), and age. Results supported scalar MI across levels of each of the grouping variables. In sum, the structural properties of the PES-G/V seemed robust to the group distinctions.

Fluctuations in grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic states: A momentary perspective

Theories of narcissism emphasize the dynamic processes within and between grandiosity and vulnerability. Research seeking to address this has either not studied grandiosity and vulnerability together or has used dispositional measures to assess what are considered to be momentary states. Emerging models of narcissism suggest grandiosity and vulnerability can further be differentiated into a three-factor structure-Exhibitionistic Grandiosity, Entitlement, and Vulnerability. Research in other areas of maladaptive personality (e.g., borderline personality disorder) has made headway in engaging data collection and analytic methods that are specifically meant to examine such questions. The present study took an exploratory approach to studying fluctuations within and between grandiose and vulnerable states. Fluctuations-operationalized as gross variability, instability, and lagged effects-were examined across three samples (two undergraduate and a community sample oversampled for narcissistic features; total person N = 862, total observation N = 36,631). Results suggest variability in narcissistic states from moment to moment is moderately associated with dispositional assessments of narcissism. Specifically, individuals who are dispositionally grandiose express both grandiosity and vulnerability, and vary in their overall levels of grandiosity and vulnerability over time. On the other hand, dispositionally vulnerable individuals tend to have high levels of vulnerability and low levels of grandiosity. Entitlement plays a key role in the processes that underlie narcissism and narcissistic processes appear unique to the construct and not reflective of broader psychological processes (e.g., self-esteem). Future research should consider using similar methods and statistical techniques on different timescales to study dynamics within narcissism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Vulnerable narcissism as beneficial factor for the therapeutic alliance in borderline personality disorder

Evidence suggests that narcissism and borderline personality disorder are associated with each other. This naturalistic study investigated the predictive value of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on the development of the therapeutic alliance in short-term psychodynamic treatment across 12 weeks. The sample consisted of 99 patients with borderline personality disorder. Narcissism was assessed with the Pathological Narcissism Inventory at treatment onset. The therapeutic alliance was rated with the Scale to Assess Therapeutic Relationships by both patient and therapist at four time points during treatment. Results showed a significant predictive value of vulnerable narcissism on the therapeutic alliance, revealing a more beneficial progression for patients with higher vulnerable narcissism. Grandiose narcissism had no predictive value on the therapeutic alliance. The study strengthens the clinical utility of the concept of vulnerable narcissism towards the evaluation of treatment processes in borderline personality disorder.

Grandiose narcissists and decision making: Impulsive, overconfident, and skeptical of experts-but seldom in doubt

A substantial body of research has documented that grandiose narcissists are characterized by high self-esteem, a sense of personal superiority and entitlement, overconfidence, a willingness to exploit others for self-gain, and hostility and aggression when challenged. We report two studies (N = 452) that explore how these dispositions affect their decision making. We show that grandiose narcissists' overconfidence, impulsivity, and a willingness to ignore expert advice results in a higher likelihood of making a bad decision. In addition, after getting the wrong answer, grandiose narcissists are more likely to blame others and remain self-confident in their judgment.

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Grandiose narcissists are overconfident and often rely on their own intuition to make decisions.

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This can lead them to make less accurate decisions.

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They remain confident in their decisions and externalize blame.

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They also often assume leadership positions in organizations.

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These tendencies can put the organizations they lead at risk.

Mom-and-Pop Narcissism: The Impact of Attention Seeking and Grandiosity on Couples' Experience of the Transition to Parenthood

Various studies have demonstrated associations between personality disorders and relationship satisfaction. The authors examine the associations between attention seeking and grandiosity, both features of narcissistic personality disorder, and relationship satisfaction before and after the transition to parenthood. The authors then expand their analysis to parental satisfaction and postpartum depression (PPD). Nonclinical couples (N = 103 couples) expecting their first child completed measures of grandiosity, attention seeking, and relationship satisfaction before birth, and of relationship satisfaction, parental satisfaction, and PPD symptoms 3 months afterward. Attention seeking was associated with less parental satisfaction and more PPD symptoms, and with less prepartum relationship satisfaction for participants' partners. For men, attention seeking was also associated with prepartum relationship satisfaction. Grandiosity was associated with a decrease in relationship satisfaction after birth, although, surprisingly with fewer PPD symptoms for participants' partners. The authors discuss how these findings might be related to changes in social support and work-life balance during the transition to parenthood.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An Object Relations Approach

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically validated psychodynamic psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder (BPD), based on object relations theory, that has clinical utility for individuals with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Given the effectiveness of TFP for patients with BPD, including a number of patients with comorbid NPD, we have adapted the tactics and techniques of TFP with specific modifications for patients with NPD or narcissistic traits. TFP for NPD (TFP-N) retains core elements of the treatment, including a contracting phase and an interpretive process designed to identify and modify maladaptive mental representations of self and others that underlie the affect and behavioral dysregulation in those with personality disorders including NPD. The major goal of TFP-N is the focus on disturbed interpersonal patterns of relating in the here-and-now of the therapeutic interaction as a vehicle to effect enduring changes in personality organization and real-world changes in the areas of love and work.

Personality Disorders as Emergent Interpersonal Syndromes: Psychopathic Personality as a Case Example

Personality disorders have long been bedeviled by a host of conceptual and methodological quandaries. Starting from the assumption that personality disorders are inherently interpersonal conditions that reflect folk concepts of social impairment, the authors contend that a subset of personality disorders, rather than traditional syndromes, are emergent interpersonal syndromes (EISs): interpersonally malignant configurations (statistical interactions) of distinct personality dimensions that may be only modestly, weakly, or even negatively correlated. Preliminary support for this perspective derives from a surprising source, namely, largely forgotten research on the intercorrelations among the subscales of select MMPI/MMPI-2 clinical scales. Using psychopathic personality as a case example, the authors offer provisional evidence for the EIS hypothesis from four lines of research and delineate its implications for personality disorder theory, research, and classification. Conceptualizing some personality disorders as EISs elucidates long-standing quandaries and controversies in the psychopathology literature and affords fruitful avenues for future investigation.

Facial Emotion Recognition and Social-Cognitive Correlates of Narcissistic Features

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is associated with both seeming indifference and hypersensitivity to social feedback. This study evaluated whether rejection sensitivity and empathic difficulties in NPD are accounted for by altered facial emotion recognition (FER). Two-hundred non-clinical individuals self-reported NPD features, rejection sensitivity, and empathy and performed an FER task assessing the ability to determine the presence or absence of an emotion when viewing neutral and negative facial stimuli presented at varying emotional intensities (25%, 50%, 75%). Those with higher NPD features were faster at accurately recognizing neutral and low, 25%-intensity emotional stimuli. This response pattern mediated the association between NPD features and increased anger about rejection. Thus, individuals with high NPD traits are hypervigilant toward subtle negative emotions and neutral expressions; this may explain their tendency to experience intense angry feelings when facing the possibility that the others would not meet their need for acceptance.

Narcissism and Devaluing Others: An Exploration of Impaired Control Over Drinking as a Mediating Mechanism of Alcohol-Related Problems

Devaluing or diminishing the worth of others is how many individuals destroy their relationships, such as by drinking beyond limits at inappropriate times and letting others down. Impaired control over drinking (IC) reflects consuming alcohol beyond predetermined limits. This investigation sought to determine whether facets of vulnerable narcissism (e.g., entitlement-rage, hiding-the-self, contingent-self-esteem, and devaluing) or narcissistic grandiosity (e.g. grandiose-fantasy, self-sacrificing-for-self-enhancement, and exploitativeness) were directly related to IC and indirectly related to drinking outcomes. We examined a path model of 759 university student drinkers. Our results show that while grandiose-fantasy (i.e., desire for special recognition) was negatively linked to IC, devaluing was positively linked to IC. In addition, men scored higher on exploitativeness (i.e., interpersonally manipulative for personal gain) than women. We conducted mediational analysis with asymmetric confidence intervals and a bias-corrected bootstrap technique. Mediational tests showed that higher levels of grandiose-fantasy were indirectly related to fewer alcohol-related problems through less IC and less heavy-episodic drinking. In contrast, higher levels of devaluing were indirectly related to more alcohol-related problems through more IC and heavy-episodic-drinking. Our results suggest that targeting thought processes in which people with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) are actively devaluing others may be a good target for therapeutic intervention.

Assessment of fluctuation between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: Development and initial validation of the FLUX scales

There is a growing interest in the distinction between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, along with a hypothesis of a fluctuation between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism within individuals. There are several well-validated measures of both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, but research has generally found that they are relatively distinct in their relations with their nomological networks. Further, the existing measures of narcissism do not actually assess for a possible fluctuation. The present study developed three scales of narcissistic fluctuation: fluctuation between indifference and anger, grandiosity and shame, and assertiveness and insecurity. Consistent with expectations, the FLUX scales correlated with both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, displayed convergent and discriminant validity with factor derived-narcissism scales and the five-factor model, and correlated at moderate-to-large effect sizes with measures of affective lability. The three FLUX scales were also reduced to one unidimensional nine-item scale of narcissistic fluctuation (the g-FLUX) that retained the correlational properties for the more specific scales and had incremental validity over the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory and Pathological Narcissism Inventory grandiose and vulnerable scales in accounting for affective lability. Results from the present study suggest that the FLUX scales may provide an informative assessment of a fluctuation between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders

Clinical and basic personality psychologists interact less than they should, given their similar interests. In clinical personality psychology, available evidence supports a transition from the current categorical system to a hierarchical trait scheme for diagnosing the stable features of personality disorder. However, trait models do not capture the dynamic aspects of personality disorders as they have been described in the clinical literature, and thus miss a clinically critical feature of personality pathology. In contrast, basic personality psychologists have coalesced around a consensual structure of individual differences and become increasingly interested in the dynamic processes that underlie and contextualize traits. But trait psychology models are not sufficiently specific to characterize dynamic personality processes. In this paper, I filter clinical descriptions of personality disorders through the lens of interpersonal theory to specify a recursive within–situation interpersonal pattern of motives, affects, behaviours, and perceptions that could contribute to the stable between–situation patterns of maladaptive behaviour of historical interest to both basic and clinical personality psychologists. I suggest that this interpersonal model adds specificity to recent proposals regarding processes in the basic personality literature and has significant potential to advance research on personality dynamics. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

The Bright, the Dark, and the Blue Face of Narcissism: The Spectrum of Narcissism in Its Relations to the Metatraits of Personality, Self-Esteem, and the Nomological Network of Shyness, Loneliness, and Empathy

Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism seem to be uncorrelated in empirical studies, yet they share at least some theoretical similarities. In the current study, we examine the relation between grandiose (conceptualized as admiration and rivalry) and vulnerable narcissism in the context of the Big Five personality traits and metatraits, self-esteem, and their nomological network. To this end, participants (N = 314) filled in a set of self-report measures via an online survey. Rivalry was positively linked with both admiration and vulnerable narcissism. We replicated the relations of admiration and rivalry with personality traits and metatraits—as well as extended existing knowledge by providing support for the theory that vulnerable narcissism is simultaneously negatively related to the Stability and Plasticity. Higher scores on vulnerable narcissism and rivalry predicted having fragile self-esteem, whereas high scores on admiration predicted having optimal self-esteem. The assumed relations with the nomological network were confirmed, i.e., vulnerable narcissism and admiration demonstrated a contradictory pattern of relation to shyness and loneliness, whilst rivalry predicted low empathy. Our results suggest that the rivalry is between vulnerable narcissism and admiration, which supports its localization in the self-importance dimension of the narcissism spectrum model. It was concluded that whereas admiration and rivalry represent the bright and dark face of narcissism, vulnerable narcissism represents its blue face.

The effect of pathological narcissism on interpersonal and affective processes in social interactions

Narcissism has significant interpersonal costs, yet little research has examined behavioral and affective patterns characteristic of narcissism in naturalistic settings. Here we studied the effect of narcissistic features on the dynamic processes of interpersonal behavior and affect in daily life. We used interpersonal theory to generate transactional models of social interaction (i.e., linkages among perceptions of others' behavior, affect, and one's own behavior) predicted to be characteristic of narcissism. Psychiatric outpatients (N = 102) completed clinical interviews and a 21-day ecological momentary assessment protocol using smartphones. After social interactions (N = 5,781), participants reported on perceptions of their interaction partner's behavior (scored along the dimensions of dominant-submissive and affiliative-quarrelsome), their own affect, and their own behavior. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to examine dynamic links among behavior and affect across interactions, and the role of narcissism in moderating these links. Results showed that perceptions of others' dominance did not predict dominant behavior, but did predict quarrelsome behavior, and this link was potentiated by narcissism. Furthermore, the link between others' dominance and one's own quarrelsome behavior was mediated by negative affect. Moderated mediation was also found: Narcissism amplified the link between ratings of others' dominance and one's own quarrelsomeness and negative affect. Narcissism did not moderate the link between other dominance and own dominance, nor the link between other affiliation and own affiliation. These results suggest that narcissism is associated with specific interpersonal and affective processes, such that sensitivity to others' dominance triggers antagonistic behavior in daily life. (PsycINFO Database Record

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism in Borderline Personality Disorder

BACKGROUND

Little is known about narcissistic traits in borderline personality disorder (BPD). This exploratory study aimed to illustrate the associations between total, grandiose, and vulnerable narcissism and gender, diagnostic features of BPD and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and psychopathology in BPD patients.

SAMPLING AND METHODS

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory and psychometric measures for impulsivity, anger, borderline symptom severity, personality organization, depression, and rejection sensitivity were completed by 65 BPD patients. Statistical analyses were conducted using the t test, Pearson correlation, and multivariate regression analyses.

RESULTS

Male BPD patients displayed higher narcissistic scores than females (p < 0.01). Grandiose narcissism showed a stronger association with NPD than with BPD (p < 0.01) while vulnerable narcissism was only associated with BPD (p < 0.01). Rejection sensitivity (p < 0.01) and depression (p < 0.001) predicted vulnerable narcissism.

CONCLUSION

Vulnerable narcissism is closely associated with BPD and appears to be more dysfunctional than grandiose narcissism. A comprehensive consideration of both traits is recommended. Our results might help to generate hypotheses for further research on pathological narcissism in the spectrum of personality disorders. Future studies are advised to apply complementary measures and take new diagnostic approaches of DSM-5 and ICD-11 into account.

Experts' Views Regarding the Conceptualization of Narcissism

There is debate over the definition of narcissism across social/personality and clinical psychology. The current article aims to quantify the level of disagreement by measuring experts' opinions concerning the attributes most central to narcissism. Accordingly, we developed a comprehensive list of attributes associated with narcissism and had 49 self-identified experts (among them 17 women, 23 psychologists from clinical psychology and 22 from social/personality psychology) rate these characteristics and provide their opinions on several issues related to the conceptualization of narcissism. Experts generally believe that the grandiose features of narcissism are more central than the vulnerable features. However, differences between clinical and social/personality psychologists were evident, especially regarding the relevance of self-esteem. Given the results, we suggest that researchers specify the kind of narcissism being assessed in a given study and consider using assessments of the full range of narcissistic features in future research to provide a more comprehensive perspective on the construct.

Revisiting the Structure of the Short Dark Triad

In the past decade, extensive interest has been directed toward the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), popularly assessed by the Short Dark Triad (SD3). Nevertheless, relatively little research has been conducted on the SD3’s factor structure. We investigated the SD3’s psychometric properties in three studies with three independent samples, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses ( N1 = 1,487; N2 = 17,740; N3 = 496). In all three studies, Machiavellianism and psychopathy items displayed large general factor loadings, and narcissism larger specific factor loadings. In subsequent studies, two- and three-factor models fitted the data similarly, with the best fitting model being a bifactor model with items from Machiavellianism and psychopathy modelled as one specific factor, and narcissism as a second specific factor. On this basis, we suggest that the SD3 does not seem to capture the different mental processes theorized to underlie the similar behaviors generated by Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Additionally, we recommend the use of a single SD3 composite score, and not subscale scores, as subscales contain small amounts of reliable variance beyond the general factor.

Narcissistic Traits and Explicit Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Implicit Self-View

Objective: Whilst the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem has been studied for a long time, findings are still controversial. The majority of studies investigated narcissistic grandiosity (NG), neglecting the existence of vulnerable manifestations of narcissism. Moreover, recent studies have shown that grandiosity traits are not always associated with inflated explicit self-esteem. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between narcissistic traits and explicit self-esteem, distinguishing between grandiosity and vulnerability. Moreover, we consider the role of implicit self-esteem in qualifying these associations.

Method: Narcissistic traits, explicit and implicit self-esteem measures were assessed among 120 university students (55.8% women, M_age = 22.55, SD = 3.03).

Results: Results showed different patterns of association between narcissistic traits and explicit self-esteem, depending on phenotypic manifestations of narcissism. Narcissistic vulnerability (NV) was linked to low explicit self-evaluations regardless of one’s levels of implicit self-esteem. On the other hand, the link between NG and explicit self-esteem was qualified by levels of implicit self-views, such that grandiosity was significantly associated with inflated explicit self-evaluations only at either high or medium levels of implicit self-views.

Discussion: These findings showed that the relationship between narcissistic traits and explicit self-esteem is not univocal, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between NG and NV. Finally, the study suggested that both researchers and clinicians should consider the relevant role of implicit self-views in conditioning self-esteem levels reported explicitly by individuals with grandiose narcissistic traits.

Rejoinder

In this rejoinder, we comment on Wright’s response to our reanalysis and reinterpretation of the data presented by Wright and colleagues. Two primary differences characterize these perspectives. First, the conceptualization of grandiose narcissism differs such that emotional and ego vulnerability, dysregulation, and pervasive impairments are more characteristic of Wright’s conception, likely due to the degree to which it is tied to clinical observations. Our conceptualization is closer to psychopathy and describes an extraverted, dominant, and antagonistic individual who is relatively less likely to be found in clinical settings. Second, our approach to construct validation differs in that we take an empirical perspective that focuses on the degree to which inventories yield scores consistent with a priori predictions. The grandiose dimension of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI-G) yields data that fail to align with expert ratings of narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose narcissism. We suggest that caution should be taken in treating the PNI-G as a gold standard measure of pathological narcissism, that revision of the PNI-G is required before it can serve as a stand-alone measure of grandiose narcissism, and that the PNI-G should be buttressed by other scales when being used as a measure of grandiose narcissism.