Narcissism

There is a growing recognition that narcissism is a heterogeneous construct composed, minimally, of two differentiable presentations-- grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism. Grandiose narcissism is associated with arrogance, entitlement, higher self-esteem, gregariousness, aggression, perceived likability, and risk taking; whereas, vulnerable narcissism is associated with egocentrism, low and variable/contingent self-esteem, distrust of others, broad and enduring negative affectivity, and social isolation. More recently, 3-factor models of narcissism have emerged providing a finer grained articulation of its core dimensions. In our version (Miller et al., 2017), the Trifurcated Model of Narcissism, there are three lower-order factors that give rise to Grandiose, Vulnerable, and Global Narcissism. The first factor, Antagonism, is common to both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. The second factor, Agentic Extraversion, is relatively adaptive, associated with assertiveness, high self-esteem, behavioral activation, approach orientation, and uniquely characterizes Grandiose Narcissism. The third factor, Neuroticism, is the unique component of Vulnerable Narcissism and is related to more fragile and contingent self-esteem, negative emotionality/emotional dysregulation, and experiences of shame and other self-conscious emotions.

Our Five Factor Narcissism Inventory (Glover et al., 2012; Sherman et al., 2015), built using expert ratings, consists of fifteen subscales that can be composited to provide scores for total Narcissism, Grandiose Narcissism, Vulnerable Narcissism, and the three elements of the trifurcated model--Antagonism, Agentic Extraverson, and Neuroticism. there is also a super short form available (West et al., in press).

Download the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory

Download the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory Super Short Form