Longitudinal changes and historic differences in narcissism from adolescence to older adulthood.

Abstract

In the debate about whether or not narcissism has been increasing in recent history, there is a lack of basic information about how narcissism changes across the adult lifespan. Existing research relies on cross-sectional samples, purposely restricts samples to include only college students, or follows one group of individuals over a short period of time. In the current study, we addressed many of these limitations by examining how narcissism changed longitudinally in a sample of 747 participants (72.3% female) from age 13 to age 77 across six samples of participants born between 1923 and 1969. Narcissism was moderately stable across the lifespan (rs ranged from .37 to .52), to a comparable degree as other psychological characteristics. We found that more maladaptive forms of narcissism (e.g., hypersensitivity, willfulness) declined across life and individual autonomy increased across life. More later-born birth-cohorts were lower in hypersensitivity and higher in autonomy compared to earlier-born birth-cohorts; these differences were most apparent among those born after the 1930s. The results are discussed in the context of the mechanisms that drive both changes in narcissism across the lifespan and substantive differences in narcissism between historical periods. . Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence?

Narcissistic traits in young people and how experiencing shame relates to current attachment challenges

“…Participants ( N = 348, 78% women) in this study were young people ( M = 19.27 years ( SD = 1.61, Range = 17–25)), see Table 1 . We targeted persons in late adolescence (16–18 years) and emerging adulthood (18–25 years) to recruit our sample and used the definition of young people for this age period [ 7 , 17 , 73 , 76 ]. A snowball method of recruitment was used, where notices for the study were provided to young people who had finished high school and were contemplating study at university.…”

What You Get is What You See: Other-Rated but not Self-Rated Leaders’ Narcissistic Rivalry Affects Followers Negatively

“…Once narcissists have obtained leadership positions and are negatively affecting their followers, other measures should be taken to minimize negative outcomes. Being a relatively stable personality trait that decreases slightly over the life span and in reaction to life events (Chopik and Grimm 2019;Grosz et al 2019;Wetzel et al 2019), narcissism in itself is hardly affected by training programs or coaching. This can be attributed to narcissists being resistant to critical feedback about themselves (Bushman and Baumeister 1998;Kernis and Sun 1994).…”

Making and maintaining relationships through the prism of the dark triad traits: A longitudinal social network study

“…Using parent and teacher reports, they found that interpersonal callousness was stable across a 9‐year interval, from childhood to adolescence. The study of Zuckerman and O’Loughlin (2009) on American students revealed that narcissism is stable across 6 months and Chopik and Grimm (2019) provided further support of this stability across the life span. Bloningen, Hicks, Krueger, Patrick, and Iacono (2006) also revealed that psychopathic traits of fearless dominance are stable, the impulsive antisociality decreases from late adolescence to early adulthood.…”