THE STRUCTURE OF NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY: ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE ...

242 Pages·2005·3.07 MB·English

The Pennsylvania State University

The Graduate School

The College of the Liberal Arts
THE STRUCTURE OF NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY: ADAPTIVE AND
MALADAPTIVE DIMENSIONS AS AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF
NARCISSISM
A Thesis in

Psychology

by

Emily B. Ansell
© 2005 Emily B. Ansell
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

December 2005
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The thesis of Emily B. Ansell was reviewed and approved* by the following:

Aaron L. Pincus
Associate Professor of Psychology
Thesis Advisor
Chair of Committee

Craig S. Edelbrock
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

Elizabeth C. Pinel
Associate Professor of Psychology

William J. Ray
Professor of Psychology

Kevin R. Murphy
Professor of Psychology
Head of the Department of Psychology

*Signatures are on file in the Graduate School
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ABSTRACT
Across domains of research on personality there is a growing consensus that both
adaptive and maladaptive conceptualizations of narcissistic characteristics are necessary
to adequately understand narcissism. Recent attempts at integrating these various
viewpoints of narcissism have led to the proposal of a single dimension on which
pathological and normal variants of narcissism co-exist. However, this construction of
narcissism assumes adaptive and maladaptive typologies are categorical in that they
represent only a portion of this proposed narcissism continuum. The current study
proposes an alternative two dimensional model of narcissism consisting of adaptive and
maladaptive narcissism dimensions. In order to determine the structure of the narcissism
construct, 982 participants completed a variety of personality self-report measures related
to narcissism, self-esteem, dependency, shame, empathy, and personality organization.
Principal components analysis confirmed previous findings that identified grandiose and
vulnerable components across narcissism measures. Items were submitted for
multidimensional scaling analysis to clarify questions regarding the structure of the two
components and the congruence of the proposed model with item content. Results
suggest that the best balance between descriptive parsimony and complexity is a two
dimensional structure of narcissism consisting of adaptive and maladaptive dimensions
which are theoretically congruent and consistent across analyses. The adaptive
expressions of narcissism dimension ranges from confident self-esteem to
hypersensitivity and dependency. The maladaptive expressions of narcissism dimension
ranges from empathic understanding to aggression, entitlement, and exploitation.
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Overall, these results assert that the structure of narcissism requires two key elements to
adequately describe the construct: 1) a dimensional approach to the spectrum of healthy
and pathological narcissism, and 2) adaptive and maladaptive expressions of narcissism
as separate and orthogonal dimensions integrated into a parsimonious but structurally
meaningful space.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................1
Narcissism: Diagnosis and Assessment................................................................4
Adaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism in Clinical Theory...................................5
Adaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism in Personality Assessment......................8
Adaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism in Social Psychology of the Self.............16
Self-esteem....................................................................................................17
Defensive versus secure self-esteem......................................................18
Grandiosity, Rage, and Self-esteem.......................................................21
Self-enhancement..........................................................................................22
Adaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism in Interpersonal Functioning...................26
Adaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism in Clinical Diagnoses..............................31
Structural Models of Narcissism..........................................................................36
The Continuum Model of Narcissism...........................................................38
A Two Dimensional Model of Narcissism....................................................43
Principal Component Analyses of Narcissism Measures.....................................47
Present Study........................................................................................................51
Chapter 2 Method.......................................................................................................53
Participants....................................................................................................53
Measures........................................................................................................53
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1981)............54
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (RSI; Rosenberg, 1965)...................54
Vulnerable Narcissism Scale (VNS, Pimental et al., 2004)...................56
Visions of Morality Scale (VMS, Shelton & McAdams, 1990)............58
Murray’s Narcism Scale (MNS, Hendin & Cheek, 1997; Murray,
1938)...............................................................................................58
Serkownek’s Narcissism Hypersensitivity Scale (SNHS, Serkownek,
1975)...............................................................................................59
Experience of Shame Scale (ESS, Andrews, Qian, & Valentine,
2002)...............................................................................................59
Chapter 3 Principal Components Analysis.................................................................61
Results...................................................................................................................61
Discussion.............................................................................................................65
Chapter 4 Multidimensional Scaling..........................................................................67
MDS Analysis.......................................................................................................75
MDS Analysis of Narcissism Subscales........................................................76
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Discussion of MDS Analysis of Narcissism Subscales.................................78
MDS Analysis of Narcissism Items..............................................................84
Discussion of MDS Analysis of Narcissism Items........................................86
MDS Analysis of Narcissism, Self-Esteem, Dependency, Shame,
Morality, and Personality Organization Scales......................................90
Discussion of MDS Analysis of Narcissism, Self-Esteem, Dependency,
Shame, Morality, and Personality Organization Scales.........................92
MDS Analysis of Narcissism Scale Items, Self-Esteem, Dependency,
Shame, Morality, and Personality Organization Scales.........................97
Discussion of MDS Analysis of Narcissism Scale Items, Self-Esteem,
Dependency, Shame, Morality, and Personality Organization Scales...99
Chapter 5 General Discussion.....................................................................................106
References....................................................................................................................112
Appendix A Figures.....................................................................................................127
Appendix B Tables.....................................................................................................186
Appendix C Narcissism Scales With Items................................................................218
VNS Items............................................................................................................218
MNS Items............................................................................................................223
NPI Items..............................................................................................................224
SNHS Items..........................................................................................................227
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. The Watson et al. (2002) continuum model of narcissism…………….…….128
Figure 2. The two dimensional model of narcissism. …………………………….……129
Figure 3. Hypothetical locations of previously identified PCA factors within the two
dimensional model……………………………………………………………………...130
Figure 4. Scree plot for PCA of sample 1………………………………………………131
Figure 5 Component plot of narcissism scales in rotated space for sample 1. ………...132
Figure 6. Scree plot for PCA of sample 2………………………………………………133
Figure 7 Component plot of narcissism scales in rotated space for sample 2………….134
Figure 8. Scree plot for PCA of combined sample………………………………..……135
Figure 9. Component plot of narcissism scales in rotated space for combined
sample……………………………………………………………………………..……136
Figure 10. Scree plot for PCA of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS scales for
sample 1…………………………………………………………………..…………….137
Figure 11. Component plot in rotated space of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS
scales for sample 1………………………………………………………….…………..138
Figure 12. Scree plot for PCA of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS scales for
sample 2……………………………………………………………………………..….139
Figure 13. Component plot in rotated space of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS
scales for sample 2………………………………………………………….…………..140
Figure 14. Scree plot for PCA of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS scales for
combined sample……………………………………………………………….………141
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Figure 15. Component plot in rotated space of VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS
scales for combined sample…………………………………………………………….142
Figure 16. Hypothesized locations of scales and subscales based on the Watson et al.
continuum model in a one dimension MDS solution………………………….………..143
Figure 17. Hypothesized locations of scales and subscales based on the proposed two
dimensional model of narcissistic personality in a two dimension MDS solution….….144
Figure 18. Scree plot of MDS Stress coefficients versus dimensional space in VNS and
NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS scales for combined sample………………………….145
Figure 19. MDS plot of one dimensional solution for VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and
SNHS scales in the combined sample…………………………………………...……...146
Figure 20. MDS plot of proximity transformations for one dimensional solution of VNS
and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS in the combined sample…………………..……..147
Figure 21. Shepard diagram of one dimensional solution of VNS and NPI subscales,
MNS and SNHS in the combined sample……………………………………..………..148
Figure 22. MDS plot of two dimensional solution for VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and
SNHS scales in the combined sample…………………………………………….…….149
Figure 23. MDS plot of proximity transformations for two dimensional solution of VNS
and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS in the combined sample……………………..…..150
Figure 24. Shepard diagram of two dimensional solution of VNS and NPI subscales,
MNS and SNHS in the combined sample………………………………………...…….151
Figure 25. MDS plot of three dimensional solution for VNS and NPI subscales, MNS and
SNHS scales in the combined sample.…………………………………………….……152
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Figure 26. MDS plot of proximity transformations for three dimensional solution of VNS
and NPI subscales, MNS and SNHS in the combined sample…………………………153
Figure 27. Shepard diagram of three dimensional solution of VNS and NPI subscales,
MNS and SNHS in the combined sample………………………………………………154
Figure 28. MDS plot of correlation between PCA components and MDS 2 dimensional
solution…………………………………………………………………………….……155
Figure 29. Scree plot of MDS Stress coefficients versus dimensional space for narcissism
items for combined sample…………………………………………………………......156
Figure 30. MDS plot of one dimensional solution for narcissism items in the combined
sample.………………………………………………………………………………….157
Figure 31. MDS plot of proximity transformations for one dimensional solution for
narcissism items in the combined sample………………………………...…………….158
Figure 32. Shepard diagram of one dimensional solution for narcissism items in the
combined sample……………………………………………………………………….159
Figure 33. MDS plot of two dimensional solution for narcissism items in the combined
sample………………………………………………….……………………………….160
Figure 34. MDS plot of proximity transformations for two dimensional solution for
narcissism items in the combined sample……………………...……………………….161
Figure 35. Shepard diagram of two dimensional solution for narcissism items in the
combined sample…………………….…………………………………………………162
Figure 36. MDS plot of three dimensional solution for narcissism items in the combined
sample………………………………………………………………….……………….163
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Figure 37. MDS plot of proximity transformations for three dimensional solution of
narcissism items in the combined sample………………………………………………164
Figure 38. Shepard diagram of three dimensional solution of narcissism items in the
combined sample……………………………………………………………………….165
Figure 39. Scree plot of MDS Stress coefficients versus dimensional space for all
subscales in the combined sample……………………………………………..……….166
Figure 40. MDS plot of one dimensional solution for all subscales in the combined
sample…………………………………………………………………………………..167
Figure 41. MDS plot of proximity transformations for one dimensional solution for all
subscales in the combined sample………………………………………………...……168
Figure 42. Shepard diagram of one dimensional solution for all subscales in the combined
sample…………………………………………………………………………………..169
Figure 43. MDS plot of two dimensional solution for all subscales in the combined
sample…………………………………………………………………………………..170
Figure 44. MDS plot of proximity transformations for two dimensional solution for all
subscales in the combined sample…………………………………………...…………171
Figure 45. Shepard diagram of two dimensional solution for all subscales in the combined
sample…………………………………………………………………………………..172
Figure 46. MDS plot of three dimensional solution for all subscales in the combined
sample………….……………………………………………………………………….173
Figure 47. MDS plot of proximity transformations for three dimensional solution for all
subscales in the combined sample………………………………...……………………174