Five-Factor Model Best Describes Narcissistic Personality Inventory Across Different Item Response Formats

Abstract

The objective of this research was to validate the Narcissistic Personality Inventory across different response formats, given that several factor structures were proposed, ranging from two to seven factors. The original forced-choice format of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory was given to 410 participants and a modified, i.e., Likert format was given to 423 participants from the general population, along with personality and other narcissism measures. The results showed that the five-factor model proposed by Ackerman et al. had the best model fit in both response formats and that a distinction between adaptive (Leadership, Vanity, and Superiority) and some aspects of maladaptive (Manipulativeness and Exhibitionism) narcissism factors could be established. However, the redundancy of items in certain factors could be problematic and further improvements of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory should include more indicators of some proposed factors, especially of Vanity.

Keywords

Narcissism narcissistic personality inventory response format factor structure construct validity adaptive narcissism maladaptive narcissism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackerman

R. A.

Donnellan

M. B.

Roberts

B. W.

Fraley

R. C.

(2016) The effect of response format on the psychometric properties of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Consequences for item meaning and factor structure. Assessment 23(2): 203–220. doi:10.1177/1073191114568113.

Ackerman

R. A.

Donnellan

M. B.

Robins

R. W.

(2012) An item response theory analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment 94(2): 141–155. doi:10.1080/00223891.2011.645934.

Ackerman

R. A.

Hands

A. J.

Donnellan

M. B.

Hopwood

C. J.

Witt

E. A.

(2016) Experts’ views regarding the conceptualization of narcissism. Journal of Personality Disorder 30: 1–16. doi:10.1521/pedi_2016_30_254.

Ackerman

R. A.

Witt

E. A.

Donnellan

M. B.

Trzesniewski

K. H.

Robins

R. W.

Kashy

D. A.

(2011) What does the Narcissistic Personality Inventory really measure? Assessment 18(1): 67–87. doi:10.1177/1073191110382845.

Ansell, B. E. (2005). The structure of narcissistic personality: Adaptive and maladaptive dimensions as an integrated model of narcissism (Doctoral dissertation). Ann Arbor, MI: The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved from eDT database at https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/1706.

Ashton

M. C.

Lee

(2009) The HEXACO-60: A short measure of the major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment 91(4): 340–345. doi:10.1080/00223890902935878.

Barelds

D. P. H.

Dijkstra

(2010) Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Structure of the adapted Dutch version. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51(2): 132–138. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00737.x.

Boduszek

Debowska

Dhingra

DeLisi

(2016) Introduction and validation of Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS) in a large prison sample. Journal of Criminal Justice 46: 9–17. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.02.004.

Book

Visser

B. A.

Volk

A. A.

(2015) Unpacking “evil”: Claiming the core of the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences 73: 29–38. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.016.

10.

Brown

R. P.

Budzek

Tamborski

(2009) On the meaning and measure of narcissism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35(7): 951–964. doi:10.1177/0146167209335461.

11.

Christie

Geis

F. L.

(1971) Studies in Machiavellianism, New York, NY: Academic Press.

12.

Clark

A. D.

Watson

(1995) Construct validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment 7(3): 309–319.

13.

Clarke

Karlov

Neale

(2015) The many faces of narcissism: Narcissism factors and their predictive utility. Personality and Individual Differences 81: 90–95. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.021.

14.

Corry

Merritt

R. D.

Mrug

Pamp

(2008) The factor structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment 90(6): 593–600. doi:10.1080/00223890802388590.

15.

Cronbach

L. J.

Gleser

G. C.

(1953) Assessing similarity between profiles. Psychological Bulletin 50: 456–473. doi:10.1037/h0057173.

16.

de Vries

R. E.

(2013) The 24-item Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI). Journal of Research in Personality 47(6): 871–880. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2013.09.003.

17.

Dinić

B. M.

(2018) Comparison of three short six-factor personality instruments. Primenjena Psihologija 11(2): 189–206. doi:10.19090/pp.2018.2.189-206.

18.

Egan

Lewis

(2011) Neuroticism and agreeableness differentiate emotional and narcissistic expressions of aggression. Personality and Individual Differences 50(6): 845–850. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.01.007.

19.

Emmons

R. A.

(1984) Factor analysis and construct validity of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment 48: 291–300. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4803_11.

20.

Emmons

R. A.

(1987) Narcissism: Theory and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52(1): 11–17.

21.

Ferguson

C. J.

(2009) An effect size primer: A guide for clinicians and researchers. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 40(5): 532–538. doi:10.1037/a0015808.

22.

Gravetter

Wallnau

(2014) Essentials of statistics for the behavioral sciences, 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

23.

Grosz, M. P., Emons, W. H. M., Wetzel, E., Leckelt, M., Chopik, W. J., Rose, N., & Back, M. D. (2017). A comparison of unidimensionality and measurement precision of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire. Assessment. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1073191116686686.

24.

Foster

J. K.

Shiverdecker

Turner

(2016) What does the Narcissistic Personality Inventory measure across the total score continuum? Current Psychology 35(2): 207–219. doi:10.1007/s12144-016-9407-5.

25.

Horton

R. S.

Bleau

Drwecki

(2006) Parenting narcissus: What are the links between parenting and narcissism? Journal of Personality 74(2): 345–376. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00378.x.

26.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling 6(1): 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118.

27.

Kansi

(2003) The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Applicability in a Swedish population sample. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 44: 441–448.

28.

Kline

R. B.

(2016) Principles and practice of structural equation modeling, 3rd ed. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

29.

Kubarych

T. S.

Deary

I. J.

Austin

E. J.

(2004) The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Factor structure in a non-clinical sample. Personality and Individual Differences 36(4): 857–872. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00158-2.

30.

Lee

Ashton

M. C.

(2005) Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Narcissism in the five-factor model and the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Individual Differences 38(7): 1571–1582. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.016.

31.

Maxwell

Donnellan

M. B.

Hopwood

C. J.

Ackerman

R. A.

(2011) The two faces of narcissus? An empirical comparison of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences 50(5): 577–582. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.11.031.

32.

Miller

J. D.

Campbell

W. K.

(2008) Comparing clinical and social-personality conceptualizations of narcissism. Journal of Personality 76(3): 449–476. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00492.x.

33.

Miller

J. D.

Gentile

Crowe

Carter

N. T.

Hoffman

B. J.

Campbell

W. K.

(2018) A comparison of the nomological networks associated with forced-choice and Likert formats of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment 100(3): 259–267. doi:10.1080/00223891.2017.1310731.

34.

Paulhus

D. L.

Williams

(2002) The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality 36: 556–568. doi:10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6.

35.

Pincus

A. L.

Ansell

E. B.

Pimentel

C. A.

Cain

N. M.

Wright

A. G. C.

Levy

K. N.

(2009) Initial construction and validation of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Psychological Assessment 21(3): 365–379. doi:10.1037/a0016530.

36.

Popov

Sekulić Bartoš

(2016) Narcizam u kontekstu psihološkog zdravlja adolescenata [Narcissism in the context of the psychological health of adolescents]. Psihološka Istraživanja 19(2): 147–163.

37.

Raskin

R. N.

Hall

C. S.

(1979) A Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Psychological Reports 45(2): 590–590. doi:10.2466/pr0.1979.45.2.590.

38.

Raskin

R. N.

Terry

(1988) A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54: 890–902. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.890.

39.

Reidy

D. E.

Zeichner

Foster

J. D.

Martinez

M. A.

(2008) Effects of narcissistic entitlement and exploitativeness on human physical aggression. Personality and Individual Differences 44: 865–875. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.015.

40.

Rosenthal

S. A.

Hooley

J. M.

(2010) Narcissism assessment in social–personality research: Does the association between narcissism and psychological health result from a confound with self-esteem? Journal of Research in Personality 44: 453–465. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.05.008.

41.

Rosenthal

S. A.

Montoya

R. M.

Ridings

L. E.

Rieck

S. M.

Hooley

J. M.

(2011) Further evidence of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory’s validity problems: A meta-analytic investigation—Response to Miller, Maples, and Campbell (this issue). Journal of Research in Personality 45: 408–416. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2011.06.004.

42.

Rosseel

(2012) lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software 48: 1–36.

43.

Stanton

Daly

Stasik-O’Brien

S. M.

Ellickson-Larew

Clark

L. A.

Watson

(2017) An integrative analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Hypomanic Personality Scale: Implications for construct validity. Assessment 24(6): 695–711. doi:10.1177/1073191115625801.

44.

Svindseth

M. F.

Sørebø

Ø.

Nøttestad

J. A.

Roaldset

J. O.

Wallin

Dahl

A. A.

(2009) Psychometric examinatio and normative data for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory 29 item version. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 50: 151–159. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00686.x.

45.

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using Multivariate Statistics, 6th ed. Boston: Pearson.

46.

Von Känel

Herr

R. M.

Van Vianen

A. E. M.

Schmidt

(2017) Association of adaptive and maladaptive narcissism with personal burnout: Findings from a cross-sectional study. Industrial Health 55(3): 233–242. doi:10.2486/indhealth.2016-0136.

47.

Watson

P. J.

Grisham

S. O.

Trotter

M. V.

Biderman

M. D.

(1984) Narcissism and empathy: Validity evidence for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment 48(3): 301–305. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4803_12.

48.

Wetzel

Roberts

B. W.

Fraley

R. C.

Brown

(2016) Equivalence of Narcissistic Personality Inventory constructs and correlates across scoring approaches and response formats. Journal of Research in Personality 61: 87–98. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2015.12.002.

49.

Wright

A. G. C.

Lukowitsky

M. R.

Pincus

A. L.

Conroy

D. E.

(2010) The higher order factor structure and gender invariance of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Assessment 17(4): 467–483. doi:10.1177/1073191110373227.