Fluctuation between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism.

Abstract

Current literature on narcissistic personality disorder has emphasized a distinction between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Some researchers have further suggested that narcissistic persons fluctuate between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. However, this perception has been confined largely to clinical experience with no systematic research testing the hypothesis. Clinicians and clinical psychology professors in the current study identified 143 persons who fit a description of either a grandiose or a vulnerable narcissist and indicated the extent to which these persons ever demonstrated traits of the complementary variant. The results supported the fluctuation hypothesis, particularly for episodes of vulnerable narcissism in persons identified as a grandiose narcissist. Correlations of the grandiose and vulnerable narcissism traits with a brief five-factor model measure corroborated past trait descriptions of the 2 respective variants of narcissism. The results of the current study are compared with existing cross-sectional and longitudinal research, and suggestions for future research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dark malevolent traits and everyday perceived stress

“…Our present study results showed negative relationships between psychopathy/grandiose narcissism and perceived stress, which aligns with previous research reporting that these are related to lower neuroticism (Gore and Widiger 2016). It is likely that features of the Dark Triad, such as lack of empathy and high self-esteem, buffer against stress.…”

“…This could be interpreted as low perceived stress in social settings (Hare 1985;Jones and Paulhus 2013;Miller et al 2016). This disposition aligns with research showing that psychopathy coincides negatively with stress-related traits such as Neuroticism (Birkás et al 2016b;Gore and Widiger 2016). A concluding but tentative assumption would therefore be that the experience of stress in individuals with high levels of psychopathy is relatively low.…”

“…Often narcissism can be seen in two forms; the overt form of narcissism, grandiose, and the covert form, vulnerable (Miller et al 2010;Wink 1991). Grandiose narcissism is characterized by high self-esteem and entitlement (Gore and Widiger 2016). Vulnerable narcissism has similar features, but is additionally characterized by neuroticism, such as anxiety and low self-esteem (Gore and Widiger 2016;Miller et al 2011).…”

“…Grandiose narcissism is characterized by high self-esteem and entitlement (Gore and Widiger 2016). Vulnerable narcissism has similar features, but is additionally characterized by neuroticism, such as anxiety and low self-esteem (Gore and Widiger 2016;Miller et al 2011). In terms of motivation, grandiose narcissism is driven by more approach-motivation, while the vulnerable type more by avoidance-motivation (Foster and Trimm 2008).…”

Issues resolved and unresolved in pathological narcissism

“…Gore and Widiger [46] showed, and this has since been replicated by Hyatt and colleagues [47], that when individuals are selected for matching a description of a grandiose narcissist, not only are they rated high in grandiosity, but their raters also describe bouts or periods where they exhibit vulnerable features. The opposite pattern is not true, consistent with our view that vulnerability reflects non-specific personality pathology.…”