On the Role of Response Styles in the Study of Intraindividual Variability

Nestler, Steffen; Geukes, Katharina; Zaun, Tobit; Eckes, Theresa

doi:10.1525/collabra.29929

“…This regards data from Samples 1 and 2 as well as Samples B and C; data from Sample A have not been used previously. Several studies with a statistical or methodological focus have relied on the data from Samples 1 or 2 (Eckes & Nestler, 2024;Nestler, 2020Nestler, , 2021Nestler, , 2022Nestler, , 2023Nestler & Blozis, 2024;Nestler et al, 2021;Nestler & Humberg, 2022). These studies have mainly concerned the conceptualization and statistical modeling of intraindividual variability but have not explored links between affective states and narcissism.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narcissists’ affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability.

Scharbert,

Dein,

Kroencke

et al. 2024

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Whereas grandiose narcissism has generally been found to be related to adaptive affective experiences (i.e., positive affective states), many theoretical conceptualizations have emphasized its associations with characteristics of low affective well-being (i.e., unstable, highly variable affective states). Empirical research on the association of grandiose narcissism with the mean level of and variability in affective states has been inconclusive, as studies have differed considerably in their conceptualizations and measurement of narcissism and affect dynamics and have suffered from methodological limitations. Here, we offer conceptual explanations for previously inconsistent findings, derive diverging hypotheses about different aspects of narcissism and affective well-being, and investigate these hypotheses in two daily diary and three experience-sampling data sets (overall N = 2,125; total measurements = 116,336). As hypothesized, we found diverging associations between agentic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism with affect levels: Whereas narcissistic admiration was related to more pleasant affective states, narcissistic rivalry was related to less pleasant ones. We also obtained some support for diverging effects of admiration and rivalry on affect variability. However, these associations were largely reduced when we corrected for (squared) mean levels of affective valence and arousal. In combination, these findings suggest that only the agentic aspect of grandiose narcissism is conducive to affective well-being, whereas its antagonistic aspect negatively influences affective well-being. Moreover, the assumed associations of grandiose narcissism with volatile affectivity seem to rely heavily on mean-level effects and primarily manifest in experiences of more diverse affective states rather than stronger or more frequent affective fluctuations in general.

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“…The computation of the standard deviation is based on the mean. Therefore, we calculated the mean of the usage of the 10 emotion regulation strategies for each stressor situation and controlled for the mean level endorsements for each participant in all models that included the between-strategy SDs by including the means as a control variable (Baird et al, 2006; Nestler et al, 2021). The resulting (mean level controlled) between-strategy variability coefficients indicate the extent to which people use only few emotion regulation strategies intensively and the remaining strategies significantly less or not at all (see also Figure 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three facets of emotion regulation in old and very old age: Strategy use, effectiveness, and variability.

Kunzmann¹,

Nestler²,

Lücke³

et al. 2024

Emotion

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The ability to regulate emotions in stressful situations is an important building block for high well-being across the lifespan. Yet, very little is known about how old and very old adults regulate their emotions. In this study, 123 young old adults (M age = 67.18, SD = 0.94) and 47 very old adults (M age = 86.70, SD = 1.46) were prompted 6 times a day for 7 consecutive days to report both their stressors and 10 emotion regulation strategies. Overall, there was little indication of age differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies during exposure to stressors, but very old, as compared with young old, individuals used three of the 10 strategies considered here more intensively. The 10 emotion regulation strategies were similarly effective across age groups based on their association with perceived overall emotion regulation success. We also did not find age group differences in within-strategy variability, defined as the variation in using a given strategy across stressor situations. By contrast, between-strategy variability, defined as the selective use of fewer rather than many strategies across stressor situations, was lower for very old participants. Only between-strategy, and not within-strategy, variability contributed to overall emotion regulation success. There was no age group difference in this regard. Taken together, the evidence suggests small age differences in emotion regulation if at all. This is noteworthy given the advanced age of the very old subsample in this study and the deficits in multiple domains of functioning reported in the literature for this advanced age.

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“…This regards data from Samples 1 and 2 as well as Samples B and C; data from Sample A have not been used previously. Several studies with a statistical or methodological focus have relied on the data from Samples 1 or 2 (Eckes & Nestler, 2023;Nestler, 2020Nestler, , 2021Nestler et al, 2021;Nestler, 2022;Nestler & Humberg, 2022;Nestler, 2023;Nestler & Blozis, 2023). These studies have mainly concerned the conceptualization and statistical modeling of intraindividual variability but have not explored links between affective states and narcissism.…”

Section: Open Science Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narcissists’ affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability

Scharbert,

Dein,

Kroencke

et al. 2024

Preprint

0

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Whereas grandiose narcissism has generally been found to be related to adaptive affective experiences (i.e., positive affective states), many theoretical conceptualizations have emphasized its associations with characteristics of low affective well-being (i.e., unstable, highly variable affective states). Empirical research on the association of grandiose narcissism with the mean level of and variability in affective states has been inconclusive, as studies have differed considerably in their conceptualizations and measurement of narcissism and affect dynamics and have suffered from methodological limitations. Here, we offer conceptual explanations for previously inconsistent findings, derive diverging hypotheses about different aspects of narcissism and affective well-being, and investigate these hypotheses in two daily diary and three experience-sampling data sets (overall N = 2,125; total measurements = 116,336). As hypothesized, we found diverging associations between agentic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism with affect levels: Whereas narcissistic admiration was related to more pleasant affective states, narcissistic rivalry was related to less pleasant ones. We also obtained some support for diverging effects of admiration and rivalry on affect variability. However, these associations were largely reduced when we corrected for (squared) mean levels of affective valence and arousal. In combination, these findings suggest that only the agentic aspect of grandiose narcissism is conducive to affective well-being, whereas its antagonistic aspect negatively influences affective well-being. Moreover, the assumed associations of grandiose narcissism with volatile affectivity seem to rely heavily on mean-level effects and primarily manifest in experiences of more diverse affective states rather than stronger or more frequent affective fluctuations in general.

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On the Role of Response Styles in the Study of Intraindividual Variability

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Narcissists’ affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability.

Narcissists’ affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability.

Three facets of emotion regulation in old and very old age: Strategy use, effectiveness, and variability.

Narcissists’ affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability

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