The narcissistic experience of friendship: The roles of agentic and communal orientations toward friendship

Abstract

<jats:p> Narcissism is associated with a wide array of interpersonal problems. The present studies examined the connections between narcissistic personality features and the experience of friendship. We were interested in the possibility that narcissistic admiration (an agentic form of narcissism characterized by assertive self-enhancement and self-promotion) and narcissistic rivalry (an antagonistic form of narcissism characterized by self-protection and self-defense) may have divergent associations with various aspects of friendship. Study 1 found that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had divergent associations with maximizing selectivity and negative friendship attributions that were mediated by the agentic and communal orientations toward friendship. Study 2 found that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had divergent associations with friendship commitment that were again mediated by agentic and communal orientations toward friendship. These results demonstrate the similarities and differences between narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry in the context of friendship as well as the important roles that agentic and communal orientations toward friendship play in the connections that narcissistic personality features have with outcomes concerning friendship. </jats:p>

Narcissism and Subjective Arousal in Response to Sexual Aggression: The Mediating Role of Perceived Power

“…This pattern aligns with previous results showing narcissistic admiration to be associated with a willingness to resort to dominance-based strategies to gain power over others if less aversive strategies were unlikely to be successful [47]. This is also consistent with the idea that narcissistic admiration is characterized by an agentic orientation to social relationships [81], which may lead individuals to be so concerned about their own sexual desires and pleasure that they fail to consider the needs of others [82].…”

Narcissistic Personality Features and Perceptions of Social Worth at Work: Implications for Job-Related Attitudes

“…Studies addressing specific aspects of narcissism have often provided a clearer perspective than those that have employed a unidimensional approach to conceptualizing narcissism. For example, extraverted narcissism often has positive associations with attitudes (e.g., satisfaction) in contexts such as romantic relationships or friendships, whereas antagonistic narcissism tends to be negatively associated with attitudes in these same contexts (e.g., Sauls & Zeigler-Hill, 2020;Zeigler-Hill et al, 2020). Similar patterns have emerged in employment contexts such that extraverted narcissism has positive connections with many job-related attitudes, whereas antagonistic narcissism tends to be negatively associated with some of these same attitudes (Lehtman & Zeigler-Hill, 2020).…”

“…Our interest in the links that narcissism has with job-related attitudes stemmed from narcissistic individuals sometimes displaying relatively negative attitudes (e.g., low satisfaction) in other areas, including relationships in the romantic domain (e.g., Zeigler-Hill et al, 2020) as well as platonic friendships (Sauls & Zeigler-Hill, 2020). Although narcissism has often been considered to be a unidimensional construct, it may be best conceptualized as a multidimensional construct with three essential aspects (e.g., Crowe et al, 2019): extraverted narcissism (which involves assertive self-enhancement), antagonistic narcissism (which involves hostility and self-protection), and neurotic narcissism (which involves emotional distress).…”

Longitudinal associations between adolescents’ narcissism and friendship features depend on gender and friends’ narcissism.

“…However, they tend to view their close ties (e.g., friends) negatively (self-centered, less kind, less likeable, etc. ; Lamkin et al, 2014), are motivated by positive outcomes in a friendship (e.g., sharing fun experiences; Foster et al, 2009), and consider power and dominance important to their view of friendships (Sauls & Zeigler-Hill, 2020). We were able to find only one peer-reviewed study on narcissism and friendship quality in adolescence.…”