Does narcissism provide a source of hardiness or vulnerability in the face of adversity? The present research addressed this question by testing whether narcissism is associated with increased physiological reactivity to emotional distress, among women. Drawing on the "fragile-ego" account, we predicted that narcissists would show a heightened physiological stress profile in response to everyda...

The construct of narcissism has a lengthy history and has been operationalized and measured by a variety of instruments. In this study, five narcissism scales were compared in terms of alternative conceptualizations of narcissism offered by C. C. Morf and F. Rhodewalt (2001), D. L. Paulhus (2001), and S. Vazire and D. C. Funder (2006), using the domains and facets of the five-factor model as a ...

Clinicians have long noted overlap in some of the key features of narcissism and bipolar disorder, including excessively high goals and impulsivity. In addition, empirical findings consistently document high levels of comorbidity between the two conditions. To better understand the similarities and differences in psychological qualities associated with mania- and narcissism-related vulnerabilit...

Although adequate self-esteem is essential for psychological health, people with high but fragile self-esteem have been shown to exhibit defensive, often aggressive behavior when their self-esteem is threatened. We measured physician narcissism (as a proxy for high but fragile self-esteem) and used a subtle manipulation to examine how physicians who varied in levels of narcissism responded to a...

With the syndrome of malignant narcissism, which is characterised by narcissistic personality disorder, anti-social behaviour, sadism and a marked tendency to paranoid reactions, Kernberg (1985, 1996) describes an independent form of pathological narcissism. According to Stone (1996) this is found in many mass-murderers and serial killers. On the basis of the example of Jack Unterweger the conn...

The present study examines the lack of strong correlations among existing self-report measures of narcissism. A principal-components analysis of 6 MMPI narcissism scales resulted in 2 orthogonal factors, 1 implying Vulnerability-Sensitivity and the other Grandiosity-Exhibitionism. Although unrelated to each other, these 2 factors were associated with such core features of narcissism as conceit,...

The core features of narcissism have been thoroughly discussed in the preceding chapters. What stands out from this discussion is the apparent importance of interpersonal processes in the development and maintenance of narcissism. The interpersonal nature of narcissism stands in sharp contrast to other conceptualizations of self, such as global feelings of self-esteem, that largely involve inte...

Scores on the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) were positively related to measures of healthy narcissism and inversely related to empathic distress, anxiety, and depression. Partial correlational procedures controlled for the tendency of healthy and unhealthy forms of narcissism to be linked together and revealed the RAS to be inversely associated with maladaptive narcissism. This same basic...

This paper provides a consideration of a broadened scope of pathological narcissism, with particular attention towards the hidden and vulnerable aspects of this clinical phenomenon. The narcissism construct is briefly reviewed, along with contemporary issues in understanding the different presentations of narcissistic dysfunction. Selections from the theoretical literature are then explored in ...

"Narcissism and Self-Esteem among Homosexual and Heterosexual Male Students," states as its aim: Acknowledging the changes both homosexuality and narcissism went through, the present study aims at empirically reviving the discussion about the association between these two phenomena. Based on the Freudian assumption that homosexual individuals develop on a narcissistic basis and look for a young...