Experts’ Views Regarding the Conceptualization of Narcissism

Abstract

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.

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism in Borderline Personality Disorder

“…Conventional psychological and diagnostic descriptions of narcissism, e.g., the Narcissistic Personality Inventory [24] or the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) [25], tend to overemphasize grandiose aspects of narcissism [26-28]. In a recent study, this description has been shown to be consistent with the view of experts who consider grandiose traits as NPD core pathology [17, 29]. …”

“…Although it is considered as particularly difficult to treat, studies of this comorbidity are limited [14, 15]. Even less research has been done on subthreshold narcissistic traits in BPD [16, 17]. …”

“…The limited evidence might partly be due to the methodological difficulties in revealing clinical expressions of narcissism effectively, reflecting experts’ disagreement about the construct [16, 17]. In this context, the distinction between vulnerable and grandiose narcissistic traits has been promising and is widely accepted [11, 18-23].…”

Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders

“…This attention to the multidimensionality of narcissism was associated with a variety of interesting programs of research on the measurement (Back et al, ; Glover, Miller, Lynam, Crego, & Widiger, ; Roche, Pincus, Lukowitsky, Menard, & Conroy, ), correlates (Miller, Lynam, Hyatt, & Campbell, in press; Morf et al, in press), and dynamics of narcissism (Back et al, ; Geukes et al, ; Leckelt, Küfner, Nestler, & Back, ; Lukowitsky & Pincus, ; Roche, Pincus, Conroy, Hyde, & Ram, ). However, so far, no consensus has emerged regarding how the concept is meaningfully distinct from particular patterns of nomothetic traits (Ackerman et al, ). The issue that is implicit in this literature but rarely discussed is that identifying the core traits associated with narcissism is mostly not an empirical question.…”

Belief in narcissistic insecurity: Perceptions of lay raters and their personality and psychopathology relations

“…Significant debate remains regarding the degree to which traits such as vulnerability and insecurity are core features of pathological narcissism . In narcissism research, traits such as insecurity and hypersensitivity reflect what has been called vulnerable narcissism, whereas traits such as arrogance and exhibitionism characterize grandiose narcissism .…”