Grapsas,Brummelman,Back,Denissen - A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit - In Press

Abstract

We propose a self-regulation model of grandiose narcissism. This model illustrates an interconnected set of processes through which narcissists (i.e., individuals with relatively high levels of grandiose narcissism) pursue social status in their moment-by-moment transactions with their environments. According to the model, narcissists select situations that afford status. Narcissists vigilantly attend to cues related to the status they and others have in these situations. Based on these perceived cues, narcissists appraise whether they can elevate their status or reduce the status of others. In accordance with these appraisals, narcissists engage in self-promotion (admiration pathway) or other-derogation (rivalry pathway). Each pathway has unique consequences for how narcissists are perceived by others, thus shaping their social status over time. The model we offer helps understand how narcissism manifests itself as a stable and consistent cluster of behaviors in pursuit of social status and how it develops and maintains itself over time. More broadly, the model might offer useful insights for future process models of other personality traits.

Narcissistic status pursuit in everyday social life: A within-person process approach to the behavioral and emotional dynamics of narcissism.

“…In a rigged video-game tournament, individuals with high narcissism tended to display more status-enhancing behaviors (rank buying) in response to victories and more combative behaviors (point stealing) in response to defeat (Szücs et al, 2022). On an emotional level, more narcissistic individuals displayed greater increases in positive affect after status satisfaction and greater increases in negative affect after status frustration (Grapsas et al, 2021(Grapsas et al, , 2022.…”

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

“…Initial studies have already investigated such affective contingencies in narcissistic individuals. On the trait level, Grapsas et al (2022) found that higher scores in admiration and rivalry were related to greater increases in positive affect after satisfaction of the power motive (a motive closely related to social status pursuit) and that higher scores in rivalry were related to greater increases in negative affect. On the daily level, Mota et al (2023) found that status success was related to This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Grandiose narcissism and performance in organizations: mediating role of subjective wellbeing

“…Recent literature on narcissism has suggested that there is a need to assess self-regulatory processes such as wellbeing which might affect behaviors of narcissistic leaders in a social and organizational setting (Grapsas et al 2020). Extant research has been done in the area of narcissism and wellbeing (Wirtz and Riggotti 2020); wellbeing and performance (Bryson et al 2017;Oswald et al 2015; Imran and Shahnawaz 2020; Sakkar Sudha and Shahnawaz 2020) and narcissism and performance (Grijalva et al 2015; Imran and Shahnawaz 2020; Sakkar Sudha and Shahnawaz 2020).…”