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Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissistic States in Interpersonal Situations.

ABSTRACT: Clinicians have noted that narcissistic individuals fluctuate over time in their levels of grandiosity and vulnerability. However, these fluctuations remain poorly understood. Interpersonal theory asserts that interpersonal situations are central to the expression of personality and psychopathology, and therefore are a key context in which to understand the dynamic processes underlying narcissistic states. The present study is the first to examine narcissistic states assessed during interpersonal situations. Specifically, perceptions of others' warmth and dominance, momentary grandiosity and vulnerability, and one's own warm and dominant behavior were assessed across situations in daily life in a large sample (person N=286; occasion N=6,837). Results revealed that more grandiose individuals perceived others as colder and behaved in a more dominant and cold fashion, on average. But in the moment, relatively higher grandiosity was associated with perceiving others as warmer and more submissive and resulted in more dominant and warm behavior. On the other hand, trait vulnerability was associated with perceptions of coldness and cold behavior, and these effects were only amplified in momentary spikes of vulnerability. This study provides much-needed insight into the contexts that contribute to fluctuations in grandiosity and vulnerability.

SUBMITTER: Edershile EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7953573 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissistic States in Interpersonal Situations.

Edershile Elizabeth A EA Wright Aidan G C AGC

Self and identity : the journal of the International Society for Self and Identity 20190611 2

Clinicians have noted that narcissistic individuals fluctuate over time in their levels of grandiosity and vulnerability. However, these fluctuations remain poorly understood. Interpersonal theory asserts that interpersonal situations are central to the expression of personality and psychopathology, and therefore are a key context in which to understand the dynamic processes underlying narcissistic states. The present study is the first to examine narcissistic states assessed during interpersona ...[more]

PMID: 33716581

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Project description:Narcissism is a truly Janusian phenomenon, consisting of both narcissistic grandiosity, exhibitionism, admiration-seeking, boldness, and dominance on the one hand, and narcissistic vulnerability, introversion, withdrawal, hypersensitivity, and anxiety on the other hand. While there is broad consensus that these two seemingly contradictory faces of narcissism can be empirically discerned and have different implications for psychological functioning and mental health, there is not yet agreement on whether grandiose and vulnerable narcissism should be regarded as independent traits or as two manifestations of one personality trait. Previous research indicates that both views hold true when the level of grandiosity is considered a moderating factor: while grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are largely unrelated in the range of normal personality variation, they are correlated in the range of high grandiosity (Jauk et al., 2017b). Here, we replicate and extend this work in an independent sample (N = 891) using a more comprehensive narcissism inventory grounded in a new trifurcated model of narcissism. The trifurcated model partitions narcissism into three main personality dimensions: agentic extraversion, antagonism, and neuroticism. We found a significant breakpoint in the association between narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability at 75% cumulative frequency of grandiosity. While grandiosity and vulnerability are unrelated below this breakpoint (r = 0.02), they are strongly correlated above (r = 0.45). In the lower range of grandiose narcissism, grandiosity draws more upon agentic extraversion and is largely associated with mental health. In the upper range, however, grandiosity is more strongly linked to antagonism and is substantially associated with fear, negative affect, and depression. These findings provide evidence for the view that grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are distinct traits at lower levels of grandiosity, but blend into an antagonistic core with signs of psychological maladjustment at higher levels. Implications for research on narcissism as a personality trait, as well as clinical practice, are discussed.

Dataset Information

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissistic States in Interpersonal Situations.

Publications

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissistic States in Interpersonal Situations.

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