Shining Light on the Dark Side of Personality E-Book

• Herausgeber: Hogrefe Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 796

Beschreibung

Learn which dark side of personality assessment to use and when - Introduces different assessment tools - Highlights the nuances between tests - Presents the relevant psychometric properties - Explores findings about human natureMore about the book We encounter people who possess undesirable dark sides of personality at low levels in our day to day lives, whether it is the boss who acts like a jerk, a cheating partner, or a friend who rubs everyone up the wrong way. This volume explores the latest research on the assessment of the dark personality traits, including the dark triad of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, and more. The internationally renowned group of contributors provide a comprehensive, evidence-based overview of the personality traits currently being explored. Each chapter reviews two main topics. First, a particular measure used to study such traits is discussed. This section is geared to help the reader to understand how researchers in this area capture data on these traits and to best decide which instrument they want to use and when. Second, each chapter then details what the psychometric data on the test reveals about human nature, including topics such as sex differences, workplace behaviors, sexuality, and value systems. In this way, the contributors highlight how the convergence of research from various measures can provide a broad mosaic of information about people colloquially called psychopaths, narcissists, spiteful, Machiavellian, and sadists. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in test development and practitioners interested in the dark side personality traits.

Leseprobe

Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice, Vol. 4

Shining Light on the Dark Side of Personality

Measurement Properties and Theoretical Advances

Edited by

Peter Karl Jonason

About the Editor

Peter Karl (P. K.) Jonason, PhD, holds the rank of associate professor at the University of Padua (Italy) and at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Warsaw, Poland). He is the author of over 180 publications, most of which are on the measurement and importance of the Dark Triad traits in personality, social, organizational, cyber, and evolutionary psychology. In 2014, he received the Ig Nobel Prize in psychology for some of his work in this area. He teaches classes in psychometrics, personality, and evolutionary psychology along with academic writing.

Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice

Each volume in the series Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice presents the state-of-the-art of assessment in a particular domain of psychology, with regard to theory, research, and practical applications. Editors and contributors are leading authorities in their respective fields. Each volume discusses, in a reader-friendly manner, critical issues and developments in assessment, as well as well-known and novel assessment tools. The series is an ideal educational resource for researchers, teachers, and students of assessment, as well as practitioners.

Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice is edited with the support of the European Association of Psychological Assessment (EAPA).

Editor-in-Chief: Tuulia M. Ortner, Austria

Editorial Board: Itziar Alonso-Arbiol, Spain; Samuel Greiff, Luxembourg; Willibald Ruch, Switzerland; Karl Schweizer, Germany

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication information for the print version of this book is available via the Library of Congress Marc Database under the LC Control Number 2022936482

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Shining light on the dark side of personality : measurement properties and theoretical

advances / edited by Peter Karl Jonason.

Names: Jonason, Peter K., 1978- editor.

Series: Psychological assessment--science and practice ; v. 4.

Description: Series statement: Psychological assessment--science and practice ; vol. 4 | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220218315 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220218374 | ISBN 9780889376151

(softcover) | ISBN 9781616766153 (PDF) | ISBN 9781613346150 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Psychological tests. | LCSH: Psychometrics. | LCSH: Personality.

Classification: LCC BF176 .S55 2022 | DDC 150.28/7—dc23

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Contents

Part I Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction

Part II Narcissism

Chapter 2 A Brief Overview of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory

Chapter 3 The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: The Seminal Measure of Narcissism in Personality and Social Psychology

Chapter 4 Trait and State Measurement of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism: Applications of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory and Adjective-Based Measures

Chapter 5 The Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale as a Measure of Vulnerable Narcissism

Chapter 6 On the Measurement of Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry

Chapter 7 Agentic Collective Narcissism and Communal Collective Narcissism

Part III Machiavellianism

Chapter 8 The Mach-IV and Its Descendants: The Assessment That Spawned a Field of Research

Chapter 9 The Five Factor Machiavellianism Inventory

Chapter 10 The Two-Dimensional Machiavellianism Scale: Measuring Machiavellian Views and Tactics

Chapter 11 Review of the Machiavellian Personality Scale: Evidence of Validity and Psychometric Properties

Part IV Psychopathy

Chapter 12 The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure

Chapter 13 The Self-Report Psychopathy Scale – Fourth Edition

Chapter 14 The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale

Chapter 15 The Elemental Psychopathy Assessment: A Personality-Based Measure of Psychopathy

Chapter 16 The Corporate Personality Inventory: A Measure of Dark Triad Traits Designed for Workplace Administration

Part V Sadism

Chapter 17 The Assessment of Sadistic Personality

Chapter 18 The Short Sadistic Impulse Scale: Updated Psychometrics and International Use

Chapter 19 Multifaceted Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies: The Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies and Comprehensive Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies Measures

Part VI The Dark Side

Chapter 20 Assessing the Dark Triad With the Dirty Dozen Measure

Chapter 21 Short Dark Triad and Short Dark Tetrad

Chapter 22 The Hogan Development Survey

Chapter 23 The Spitefulness Scale

Part VII Final Thoughts

Chapter 24 Measuring Personality Traits in Context: Four Approaches to Situations in Self-Report Measures of Personality

Chapter 25 Ending the Sibling Rivalry Among Dark Traits

Chapter 26 Controversies Surrounding the Dark Triad: A Call to Action

Chapter 27 Controversies in Dark Trait Research: A Call for Reason

Chapter 28 Conclusion

Contributors

Subject Index

|1|Part IIntroduction

|3|Chapter 1Introduction

P. K. Jonason

Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy

Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland

As with all good stories, it is best to start at the beginning. In the beginning there was darkness. In the beginning there were no distinctions; there was just one. As time progressed, distinctions were made clear, and ways of seeing them developed. While this is not a biblical story, the development resembles this movement from darkness to light. Indeed, 100 years ago, there were virtually no distinctions in personality psychology and just as many measures, especially with regard to the dark side of personality, which originated from work on psychopathology, most notably from the Freudian or psychoanalytic tradition. With the emergence of the Allportian tradition of factor analysis (Allport, 1937; Allport, 1960; Cattell, 1943), researchers started to highlight five aspects of personality. These Big Five traits, as they were called, came to dominate the conversation of personality researchers for decades, with less interest – even fringe interest – afforded to other traits such as psychopathy and narcissism, despite their serious consequences for both the world and the individual. These so-called darker aspects of personality were typically confined to clinical research and discussions about therapy and reduction of socially undesirable traits in clinical populations. Even with the development of self-report inventories of traits such as narcissism (e.g., the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; Raskin & Hall, 1979) in the late 1970s, research in this area remained rather fringe for another 40 years. And years later, researchers interested in the dark side of personality must still constantly justify their place at the table of personality psychology because of the presumed preeminence of the Big Five traits (they do so, e.g., by showing incremental validity above the Big Five traits). As such, this area of research developed surprisingly slowly. This may be because (1) each trait and its measures were developed in isolation, (2) researchers may have only been looking at these traits through applied lenses, and (3) no compendium of related measures has existed to help researchers. We try to remedy these issues in this book.

Despite many years of development, research on the dark side of personality is still in an emergent state. With the support of the European Society for Social Psychology, Willibald Ruch, and Hogrefe Publishing, we provide this initial volume (with hopes of more to come) on several measures of a wide range of darker aspects of personality. This book is the product of an international collaboration of some of the best-known and most-cited researchers in the world on the dark side of personality. For instance, the world’s top three researchers – based on citation rates – on the Dark Triad traits (i.e., P. K. Jonason, Daniel N. Jones, and Delroy L. Paulhus) factor heavily in this book. The authors who have con|4|tributed to this edited volume come from about 10 countries, with hundreds of years of total experience and thousands of citations among us. We are almost exclusively basic researchers studying issues of measurement and utility in nonclinical populations. Where possible, the authors of the chapters are those who created the scales themselves to provide added nuance and contextualization of the development of the measures. For instance, the Pathological Narcissism Inventory was created by Aaron L. Pincus who is also the author of the related chapter, as is the case for several others like the Short Dark Triad / Tetrad (Jones & Paulhus), Spitefulness (Zeigler-Hill), and the Comprehensive Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies (CAST) and Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST) measures of sadism (Buckels). Beyond the breadth and expertise of each author, each chapter was reviewed by one external expert as well, to maximize the quality of the chapter. To that end, we must thank these external reviewers for their time.

Unlike measures of the Big Five traits that capture a wide range of personality aspects, the measures discussed in this book are more narrowband in nature; they are more concerned with singular traits (and their facets) or the taxonomies of antagonistic traits. The book was originally designed to focus on just the Dark Triad traits of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, but these three traits are themselves not broadband traits like the Big Five. While they are diverse traits themselves (e.g., composed of facets), the Dark Triad traits do not cover a wide range of personality space. Indeed, the tide in this area of research is moving toward a more inclusive system that includes more than just three traits and may include sadism and spitefulness as well.

Despite the movement toward more inclusiveness and, therefore, the explaining and exploring of more of the shadow cast by the dark side traits, we are still concerned with antagonistic and agentic traits here. Their narrowband nature imposes unique challenges on researchers in this area, which we highlight herein. For instance, several authors highlight the challenges of dealing with the rather high correlations among these traits, offering solutions like focusing on zero-order correlations only. Unlike other aspects of personality that might be relatively observable through behavioral markers, these traits tend to be rather obscure, creating an over-reliance on self-report measures that several authors highlight (e.g., Lawson & Robins, Chapter 25; Miller, Sharpe, & Lynam, Chapter 26). In general, the book is geared toward detailing the development of these measures, their psychometric properties, and the findings about human nature revealed by them, to allow researchers, clinicians, and organizational psychologists to make informed decisions about the nature, features, and utility of each measure for their research. For instance, if one wants to study psychopathy in the workplace, measures like the Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, Chapter 21) may contain too many problematic items for employees worried about keeping their job, and therefore, the Corporate Personality Inventory (Brooks & Fritzon, Chapter 16) or Hogan’s Development Survey (Boudreaux & Sherman, Chapter 22) might be more effective. Alternatively, if researchers have trait-specific questions, they might adopt a multifactorial measure like the NARC (Grosz, Dufner, & Back, Chapter 6), instead of the ultrabrief Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (Rogoza & Kowalski, Chapter 20), to examine the role of narcissism in, for instance, the propensity to engage in infidelity.

In closing, we hope you enjoy this book and profit from it. We hope to have provided a crash course in each measure to help emerging researchers in the area, along with more seasoned researchers, deal with the quagmire of issues present in researching the dark side of personality. We take what we hope is a fair and balanced approach to these meas|5|ures, providing both the positive and the negative aspects, thereby informing researchers so they can make their own choices. The area has major hurdles to address, but with a broader array of researchers from around the world working together, informed about the same issues and considerations, the field is now likely to progress much faster than it did relying on older measures of these traits.

Acknowledgments

We thank Lidia Baran, Gayle Brewer, Keith Campbell, Jan Cieruch, Anna Czarna, Bojana Dinic, Vince Egan, Cythnia Fekken, A. J. Figueredo, Dave Gerber, Chris Jackson, Louise Katz, Phil Kavanagh, Minna Lyons, Evita March, Dave Marcus, Matt Montoya, Chris Nave, John Nezlek, John Rauthmann, Claudia Savard, Constantine Sedikides, Kevin Williams, Anna Zajenkowska, and Matthias Ziegler for reviewing the chapters of this work.

References

Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A psychological interpretation. Holt.

Allport, G. W. (1960). The open system in personality theory. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,61, 301–310. Crossref

Cattell, R. B. (1943). The description of personality: Basic traits resolved into clusters. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,38, 476–506. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054116

Raskin, R. N., & Hall, C. S. (1979). A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological Reports,45, 590. Crossref

|7|Part IINarcissism

|9|Chapter 2A Brief Overview of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory

Aaron L. Pincus

Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus, 2013; Pincus et al., 2009) is a multidimensional self-report inventory that assesses a contemporary clinical model of narcissism (Pincus, in press; Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010). This model, which emphasizes the interplay of narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability (Pincus & Wright, 2021), synthesizes the narcissism literature in clinical psychology, social/personality psychology, and psychiatry (Cain et al., 2008) with the presentation of narcissistic patients in typical outpatient clinical settings (Pincus et al., 2014, 2016). This chapter briefly reviews the origins and aims, construction and psychometrics, scoring, and nomological net of the PNI.

Origins and Aims of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory

The PNI was constructed to answer concerns related to the assessment of narcissism as a clinical problem and form of personality pathology. First, in contrast to a century of clinical and psychiatric conceptualizations of narcissism as a pathological (or “dark”) personality trait (Dowgwillo et al., 2016), a growing segment of the social/personality research literature on trait narcissism has characterized the construct as adaptive in a variety of ways (e.g., Cai & Luo, 2018; Sedikides et al., 2004). Second, unlike what is seen with other personality disorder diagnoses, the low prevalence rates of narcissistic personality disorder reported in large-scale epidemiological studies (Dawood et al., 2020) are notably lower than the rates of narcissistic pathology being treated in psychotherapy based on surveys of practicing clinicians (e.g., Doidge et al., 2002; Ogrodniczuk, 2013). This indicated possible limitations of the measures commonly used in social/personality psychology at the time, as well as of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) criteria, to identify individuals and pa|10|tients whom clinicians consider to be exhibiting pathological narcissism. Thus, the origins of the PNI are not rooted in the Dark Triad or dark personality traits literature, but in the clinical literature on pathological narcissism. The aim of the PNI is to assess grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits, consistent with the clinical presentation of narcissism in help- and treatment-seeking populations.

To the layperson, narcissism is most often associated with conceited, arrogant, and domineering attitudes and behaviors (Buss & Chiodo 1991), which are captured by the term “narcissistic grandiosity.” This accurately identifies some common expressions of maladaptive self-enhancement associated with pathological narcissism. Narcissistic vulnerability, in contrast, is reflected in experiences of anger, envy, aggression, helplessness, emptiness, low self-esteem, shame, avoidance of interpersonal relationships, and even suicidality (Kohut & Wolf, 1978; Krizan & Johar, 2012, 2015; Pincus & Roche, 2011; Ronningstam, 2005). While grandiosity is the core feature of pathological narcissism according to surveys of clinicians, these same therapists also consistently recognize expressions of vulnerability in many narcissistic patients (Ackerman et al., 2017; Gore & Widiger, 2016).

The contemporary clinical model of narcissism (Pincus, in press; Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010) combines maladaptive self-enhancement motivation (grandiosity) with self, emotional, and behavioral dysregulation in response to ego threats or self-enhancement failures (vulnerability). A comprehensive hierarchical model of pathological narcissism is presented in Figure 2.1. Here, narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability are moderately intercorrelated, and together make up the higher order construct of pathological narcissism (Wright et al., 2010). The positive association between grandiosity and vulnerability is stronger at higher levels of grandiosity (Jauk & Kaufman, 2018). Expressions of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability may be chronic, with each suppressing the other, or they may oscillate over time as distinct states within the same person (Edershile & Wright, 2021a, 2021b; Hyatt et al., 2018). In recent years, recognition of both grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits has increasingly become the norm (Miller et al., 2017; Krizan & Herlache, 2018).

Figure 2.1. The hierarchical structure of pathological narcissism. Reproduced with permission, from “Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder,” by A. L. Pincus & M. R. Lukowitsky, 2010, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, p. 431.

|11|The Pathological Narcissism Inventory

After conducting a synthetic review of the literature (Cain et al., 2008), the test construction team met with psychotherapists working with patients exhibiting narcissistic personality pathology, who gave case presentations and reviewed recorded sessions that characterized core aspects of pathological narcissism seen in psychotherapy outpatients. This literature and clinical case review process culminated in the identification of seven target dimensions encompassing grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits. The hypothesized dimensions of narcissistic vulnerability were contingent self-esteem, entitlement rage, devaluing of others and needs for others, and narcissistic social avoidance (hiding the self). The hypothesized dimensions of narcissistic grandiosity were labeled exploitativeness, grandiose fantasies, and self-sacrificing self-enhancement. The test construction team generated an initial pool of 131 items tapping these seven factors. Several iterative empirical processes, including factor analyses on a sample of 796 young adults, reduced the item pool to seven factors, assessed by 52 items, which corresponded well to a priori expectations (Pincus et al., 2009).

Facets and Higher-Order Factors

The PNI has 52 items, typically, but not necessarily, rated from 0 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me), tapping seven facet scales that reliably assess facets of narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability (α’s typically range from .80 to .93; e.g., Pincus et al., 2009; Wright et al., 2010). Facets of Grandiosity include: Exploitativeness (EXP, 5 items), reflecting a manipulative interpersonal orientation; Grandiose Fantasy (GF, 7 items), reflecting engagement in compensatory fantasies of gaining success, admiration, and recognition; and Self-Sacrificing Self-Enhancement (SSSE, 6 items), reflecting the use of purportedly altruistic acts to support an inflated self-image. Facets of Vulnerability include Contingent Self-Esteem (CSE, 12 items), reflecting a significantly fluctuating experience of self-esteem and acknowledgment of dysregulation in the absence of external sources of admiration and recognition; Hiding the Self (HS, 7 items), reflecting an unwillingness to show others faults and needs; Devaluing (DEV, 7 items), reflecting disinterest in others who do not provide needed admiration and shame over needing recognition from disappointing others; and Entitlement Rage (ER, 8 items), reflecting angry affects when entitled expectations are not met. Some PNI facets exhibit modest gender differences in scores, but these differences are quite small (mean Cohen’s d = 0.15, range 0.03 – 0.35; see Wright et al., 2010).

The seven PNI scales load on two correlated higher-order factors of grandiosity (EXP, GF, SSSE) and vulnerability (CSE, HS, DEV, ER), and this structure is invariant across gender (Wright et al., 2010) and across adolescent and young adult samples (Somma et al., 2020). The narcissistic grandiosity factor is characterized by self-serving beliefs and self-enhancement strategies (e.g., I like to have friends who rely on me because it makes me feel important [SSSE]; I often fantasize about being recognized for my accomplishments [GF]; I can make anyone believe anything I want them to [EXP]), whereas the narcissistic vulnerability factor is characterized by susceptibility to self, emotional, and behavioral dysregulation (e.g., low self-esteem, shame, anger, anxiety, aggression, withdrawal) when narcissistic needs are not met (e.g., It irritates me when people don’t notice how good a per|12|son I am [ER]; It’s hard for me to feel good about myself unless I know other people admire me [CSE]; When others don’t meet my expectations, I often feel ashamed about what I wanted [DEV]; When others get a glimpse of my needs, I feel anxious and ashamed [HS]).

Short Forms and Translations

In addition to the 52-item original PNI, a 28-item brief form (Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory [B-PNI]) that retains the 7-facet, two-factor structure of the parent form, and a 12-item super brief form (Super Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory [SB-PNI]) assessing narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability are also available (Schoenleber et al., 2015). Both the B-PNI and SB-PNI were developed using item response theory to optimize assessment of the PNI’s grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits. The B-PNI exhibits high fidelity to the original PNI, reduces burden, equalizes the number of items per facet for ease of scoring and interpretation. The SB-PNI can be used to assess the higher-order factors of narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability and is particularly appropriate for ambulatory assessment of narcissistic states (Dowgwillo et al., 2019).

The PNI has been translated into and validated in several languages. These include Chinese (You et al., 2013), Croatian (Jakšić et al., 2014), Dutch (Rossi et al., 2012), French (Diguer et al., 2020), German (Morf et al., 2017), Greek (Karakoula et al., 2013), Hebrew (Besser et al., 2013), Italian (Fossati & Somma, 2018), Japanese (Kawasaki & Oshio, 2021), Persian (Soleimani et al., 2015), Polish (Rogoza et al., 2019), Serbian (Dinić & Vujić, 2020), and Turkish (Şen & Barışkın, 2019) versions. However, measurement invariance has only been confirmed for the Serbian translation (Dinić & Vujić, 2020) and partially confirmed for the German translation (Wetzel et al., 2021).

Scoring, Normative Data, and Interpretation

As a result of the variability in scale length for the full PNI, mean item endorsement scores are used instead of sums, for easy comparison across scales. This approach is retained for B-PNI and SB-PNI. The first-order factor scores are highly correlated with their respective mean scale scores (range of rs = .95–.99; Wright et al., 2010). The second-order factor scores also are highly correlated with their respective mean scale scores for Narcissistic Grandiosity (r = .86) and Narcissistic Vulnerability (r = .97; Wright et al., 2010). Thus, it is appropriate for clinicians to use the mean scale scores for ease of calculation. Current norms for general clinical outpatient, community adult, and student samples are provided in Table 2.1. The general clinical outpatient and community adult norms are based on a combination of US, Canadian (i.e., North American), and European samples. The student norms are based on a mega-sample of Americans.

As the PNI is designed to measure normally distributed traits of narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability, as well as overall levels of pathological narcissism, means and standard deviations are quite similar across groups. The PNI has also been used in adolescent (e.g., Ensink et al., 2017), forensic (e.g., Rogier et al., 2019), and military (e.g., Anestis et al., 2019; Preston et al., 2020) samples. There is some evidence that the PNI total score (pathological narcissism), as well as scores on narcissistic grandiosity and nar|13|cissistic vulnerability, decrease with age (Kealy et al., 2017; Stone et al., 2021). Scores can be interpreted dimensionally based on standardization with the appropriate normative values, creating normal z scores for interpretation (e.g., a z score of 1.0 is one standard deviation above the normative mean, a z score of –1.0 is 1 standard deviation below the normative mean, etc.). A z score ≥ 1.0 would be considered elevated. As a continuous dimensional trait measure, there is no clinical cutoff.

Table 2.1. Sample-size adjusted aggregated normative values for Narcissistic Grandiosity, Narcissistic Vulnerability, and PNI total score in clinical, general adult, and student samples

PNI scale

Clinical (N = 1,518)

Mean (SD)

Adult (N = 4,505)

Mean (SD)

Student (N = 4,862)

Mean (SD)

Grandiosity

2.42 (0.85)

2.62 (0.83)

2.59 (0.74)

Vulnerability

2.40 (0.88)

2.20 (0.87)

2.33 (0.82)

PNI Total

2.42 (0.86)

2.38 (0.83)

2.42 (0.75)

Note. PNI = Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Normative values combined from the following publications. Clinical: Ellison et al. (2013), Fossati et al. (2017), Kealy et al. (2012, 2016, 2020), Jaksic et al. (2017), Stanton et al. (2018). Adult: Bégin et al. (2019), Borroni et al. (2016), Brown et al. (2020), Dinić & Vujić (2020), Green et al. (2020), Kauten & Barry (2016), Lee-Rowland et al. (2017), Schoenleber et al. (2015), Swami et al. (2015), Vonk et al. (2016), Zerach (2016). Student: Ménard & Pincus (2014), Pincus et al. (2009), Wright et al. (2010).

Validity (Selected Studies)

For more comprehensive reviews of validity, see Pincus (2013, in press), Dowgwillo et al (2016), and Dawood et al (2020).

Grandiosity and Vulnerability

Because PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability are moderately correlated, examination of their external associations is best accomplished using a multivariate approach that controls for their shared variance. This can be done via partial correlation, multiple regression, or structural equation modeling. An exemplary study employing multiple regression (Edershile et al., 2019) examined the nomological associations between PNI grandiosity, PNI vulnerability, personality disorders assessed via clinical interview, and self-reported normal and pathological personality traits. Regarding personality disorders, PNI vulnerability was positively associated with all personality disorders except histrionic and antisocial, whereas PNI grandiosity was positively associated only with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders.

Regarding normal personality traits, both PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability were negatively associated with Agreeableness, but they diverged from other Big Five domains. Specifically, PNI grandiosity was positively associated with Extraversion, and negatively related to Neuroticism and Openness. In contrast, PNI vulnerability was negatively associated with Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness, and strongly positively related with Neuroticism. These patterns are consistent with the trifurcated trait model |14|of narcissism that includes self-centered antagonism (i.e., low agreeableness), narcissistic neuroticism, and agentic extraversion (Crowe et al., 2019; Miller et al., 2016).

Regarding pathological personality traits, PNI grandiosity exhibits positive associations with several externalizing traits such as manipulativeness, deceitfulness, attention seeking, grandiosity, and risk taking (Fossati et al., 2017; Wright et al., 2013). PNI vulnerability exhibited unique positive associations with other distinct externalizing traits (e.g., hostility, irresponsibility, callousness) while also exhibiting broader associations with other pathological trait domains (e.g., intimacy avoidance, anhedonia, depressivity, eccentricity) (Fossati et al., 2017; Wright et al., 2013). Overall, this pattern is consistent with the results of a large body of literature that finds that PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability share an antagonistic core, while aligning PNI grandiosity with externalizing traits and symptoms, and PNI vulnerability with both internalizing and externalizing traits and symptoms (Dowgwillo et al., 2016; Marčinko et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2010; Pincus, in press).

Consistent with associations found for internalizing and externalizing traits, problems, and psychopathology, PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability exhibit distinct associations with self-esteem, self-conscious emotions, and core affect. PNI vulnerability is negatively related with self-esteem, whereas PNI grandiosity is positively correlated with self-esteem (Pincus et al., 2009). Zeigler-Hill and Besser (2013) found that PNI vulnerability is uniquely associated with day-to-day fluctuations in feelings of self-worth. PNI vulnerability is positively associated with shame and hubris, negatively associated with authentic pride, and unrelated to guilt. In contrast, PNI grandiosity is positively correlated with guilt and unrelated to pride and shame (Pincus, 2013). PNI vulnerability is positively correlated with negative affect, rage, and envy, and negatively correlated with positive affect, while PNI grandiosity is only positively related to positive affect (Krizan & Johar, 2012, 2015).

Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability are also associated with specific types of interpersonal problems. PNI grandiosity is associated with predominately vindictive, domineering, and intrusive problematic behaviors (Ogrodniczuk et al., 2009). Similarly, PNI vulnerability is associated with vindictive interpersonal problems but also shows positive associations with exploitable and avoidant problems (Pincus et al., 2009). PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability also exhibit meaningful associations with interpersonal sensitivities, with grandiosity associated with sensitivity to others’ remoteness, antagonism, and control, and vulnerability associated with sensitivity to others’ remoteness, control, attention seeking, and affection (Hopwood et al., 2011). Lastly, a week-long daily diary study (Roche et al., 2013) indicated that narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability were related to individuals’ behavior in social interactions in daily life. Specifically, PNI grandiosity was associated with responding to perceiving others as behaving dominantly with reciprocal dominant behavior. The authors concluded that narcissistic individuals may view the dominant behavior of others as a threat to their status and respond in ways to self-enhance and reassert their superiority (see also Wright et al., 2017).

Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability also show differential associations with the utilization of psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment. For instance, Ellison and colleagues (2013) found that narcissistic grandiosity was negatively correlated with treatment utilization (telephone-based crisis services, partial hospitalizations, inpatient admissions, taking medications) and positively correlated with outpatient therapy no-shows. Narcissistic vulnerability was positively correlated with use of telephone-based crisis services, |15|inpatient admissions, and outpatient therapy sessions attended and cancelled. Results indicating that narcissistic vulnerability is positively associated with treatment utilization support the view that narcissistic patients are likely to present for clinical services when they are in a vulnerable self-state (Pincus et al., 2014). In addition, PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability are associated with suicide attempts (Miller et al., 2010; Pincus et al., 2009), suicidal ideation (Jaksic et al., 2017), and nonsuicidal self-injury (Dawood et al., 2018).

Pathological Narcissism

Several studies have examined the associations of global pathological narcissism using the PNI total score. In one important study, Kealy and colleagues (2017) found that after controlling for general psychiatric distress, the PNI total score predicted drug and alcohol abuse, angry and aggressive behaviors, and risk-taking behaviors in a large, nationally representative sample of Canadian men. In a prospective study of depressive symptoms (Dawood & Pincus, 2018), the PNI total score was positively associated with mean level, variability, and instability of depressive symptoms over 8 weeks. The pattern of results suggests that pathological narcissism is related to episodic, rather than chronic, depressive symptoms, particularly anhedonia. Results of a study examining pathological narcissism and exposure to war (missile attacks toward Israel) demonstrated an association between exposure severity and acute anxiety symptoms for individuals with high levels of pathological narcissism (PNI total score) but not for those with low levels of pathological narcissism (Besser et al., 2013). These results suggest that individuals with pathological narcissism features are at high risk for the development of acute anxiety symptoms following exposure to uncontrollable and life-threatening mass trauma.

Lastly, a study examining the impact of pathological narcissism on caregiver burden (Day et al., 2020) found that caregivers of persons with high levels of pathological narcissism (PNI total score) endorsed elevated burden compared with caregivers of persons with other serious mental illnesses. Caregivers of persons high in pathological narcissism also reported levels of impaired well-being like that of clinical samples diagnosed with anxiety and mood disorders.

Conclusions

At the time of its construction, the PNI was the only self-report measure assessing pathological narcissism that included both narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability. Since its publication, several new measures assessing grandiosity and especially vulnerability have emerged (e.g., Back et al., 2013; Crowe et al., 2018; Glover et al., 2012); however, none have the extensive research base of the PNI. The B-PNI is a promising short form with high fidelity and improved precision, and the SB-PNI is ideal for intensive repeated assessments or when participant burden requires the shortest possible measure.

The PNI is not without limitations, however. First, the substance of PNI grandiosity is unique among narcissism measures in that it assesses traits most prominent in treatment-seeking narcissistic patients (i.e., exploitativeness, grandiose fantasy, and self-sacrificing |16|self-enhancement), and does not include items assessing arrogant, haughty, exhibitionistic attitudes and behaviors found in other measures of narcissistic grandiosity (Schoenleber et al., 2015). Second, PNI grandiosity and PNI vulnerability are moderately intercorrelated by design (Pincus, 2013). This runs counter to a common misunderstanding that narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability are orthogonal to each other, but it is consistent with the understanding that they share an antagonistic core. Nonetheless, this shared variance should be accounted for through multivariate, rather than univariate, analytical approaches (Edershile et al., 2019). Lastly, although the PNI certainly assesses dark personality traits, it remains unclear how or if narcissistic vulnerability and emerging conceptualizations of narcissism that include both grandiosity and vulnerability fit with the formal Dark Triad framework.

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|22|Chapter 3The Narcissistic Personality Inventory

The Seminal Measure of Narcissism in Personality and Social Psychology

Joshua D. Foster and Jennifer R. Raley

Psychology Department, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988) is one of the oldest and most widely used measures of narcissism in personality and social psychology. A Google Scholar search (conducted on January 22, 2021) of the four papers that constitute the empirical foundation of the NPI reveals over 7,000 combined citations (Emmons, 1984; Raskin & Hall, 1979, 1981; Raskin & Terry, 1988). For many years, the NPI was effectively the only measure and de facto definition of narcissism in personality and social psychology. That has since changed, with the recent development of new measures of narcissism (Foster et al., 2018