Measurement Invariance of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory and Multimethod Examination of Narcissistic Presentations in Community and Clinical Samples

Abstract

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) is extensively used in recent empirical literature on pathological narcissism. However, most studies using the PNI are community-based, and no studies have used the PNI to investigate narcissistic presentations in personality disordered patients. This study investigates measurement invariance of the PNI in community participants and patients with personality disorders, and examines differences of narcissistic presentations in these samples through a multimethod approach. Results show that the PNI can be used reliably to measure and compare traits of pathological narcissism in community participants and patients with personality disorders. Personality disordered patients show higher traits reflecting vulnerable narcissism and overt manifestations of grandiose narcissism, compared with controls. Finally, network analysis indicates that traits of grandiose fantasies and entitlement rage have a central role in defining manifestations of PNI pathological narcissism, regardless of the presence of an underlying personality disorder. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

The peaks and valleys of narcissism: The factor structure of narcissistic states and their relations to trait measures.

“…Although theoretical and psychometrical investigations of trait narcissism are flourishing (e.g., Di Pierro et al, 2023; Miller et al, 2021; Wetzel et al, 2021), less is known about the measurement of state narcissism (Edershile et al, 2019), which is a major drawback as shifts from one narcissistic state to another are sometimes considered central features of narcissistic functioning (Gore & Widiger, 2016; Jauk et al, 2022; Kealy & Rasmussen, 2012; Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010). Understanding the consequences of state narcissism and having appropriate tools to assess it might therefore have broad implications for theoretical advancements in narcissism.…”

“…In fact, agentic and neurotic narcissism are both positively related to antagonistic narcissism (M. L. Crowe et al, 2019;Krizan & Herlache, 2018). The role of antagonistic narcissism is further emphasized by the fact that within the structural organization of narcissistic personality, antagonistic narcissism acts like a bridge connecting agentic and neurotic narcissism (Di Pierro et al, 2023;Rogoza et al, 2022). Thus, adoption of the facet approach might offer additional insights in understanding the process of fluctuations in narcissism.…”

“…This suggests that while the findings on the factorial structure of trait narcissism (cf. Hypotheses 1 and 2; M. L. Crowe et al, 2019;Di Pierro et al, 2023) may be applied to state narcissism (i.e., facets of narcissism can be measured as state variables), there are notable differences in how stable trait dispositions of narcissism are related to more dynamic state expressions.…”

“…This hypothesis is based on the prior studies (Mota et al, 2023) and the notion that a trait can be considered the mean of its states (Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009). Moreover, given the central role of antagonistic narcissism within the structure of narcissistic personality (Di Pierro et al, 2023; Rogoza et al, 2022), we expected trait and state antagonistic narcissism to be positively related to both trait and state agentic and neurotic narcissism (Hypothesis 3.2).…”

Two-Wave Stability of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism During Adolescence

“…Different studies support the construct validity of the PNI, also advocating for its measurement invariance and convergent and discriminant validity (Morf et al, 2017; Wright et al, 2010). Di Pierro et al (2023) demonstrated that the PNI could be used reliably for assessing and comparing pathological narcissism traits in community participants and individuals with personality pathology. In addition, Somma et al (2019a, 2019b) established the PNI's measurement invariance between adolescents and young adults.…”