The primary goal of this study was to explicate the construct validity of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) by examining their relations both to each other and to measures of personality and psychopathology in a community sample (N = 255). Structural evidence indicates that the NPI is defined by Leadership/Authority, Grandiose Exhibitionism, and Entitlement/Exploitativeness factors, whereas the HPS is characterized by specific dimensions reflecting Social Vitality, Mood Volatility, and Excitement. Our results establish that (a) factor-based subscales from these instruments display divergent patterns of relations that are obscured when relying exclusively on total scores and (b) some NPI and HPS subscales more clearly tap content specifically relevant to narcissism and mania, respectively, than others. In particular, our findings challenge the construct validity of the NPI Leadership/Authority and HPS Social Vitality subscales, which appear to assess overlapping assertiveness content that is largely adaptive in nature.
AckermanR. A.DonnellanM. B. (2013). Evaluating self-report measures of narcissistic entitlement. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 35, 460-474.
2.
AckermanR. A.WittE. A.DonnellanM. B.TrzesniewskiK. H.RobinsR. W.KashyD. A. (2011). What does the Narcissistic Personality Inventory really measure?Assessment, 18, 67-87.
3.
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
4.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
5.
AmesD. R.RoseP.AndersonC. P. (2006). The NPI-16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 440-450.
6.
CainN. M.PincusA. L.AnsellE. B. (2008). Narcissism at the crossroads: Phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social/personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 638-656.
7.
CicchettiD. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6, 284-290.
8.
ClarkL. A.WatsonD. (1999). The Drug Use Survey (Unpublished manuscript). University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
9.
CorryN.MerrittR. D.MrugS.PampB. (2008). The factor structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90, 593-600.
10.
CortinaJ. M. (1993). What is coefficient alpha? An examination of theory and applications. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 98-104.
11.
CostaP. T.Jr.McCraeR. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
12.
DigmanJ. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440.
13.
DurbinC. E.SchaletB. D.HaydenE. P.SimpsonJ.JordanP. L. (2009). Hypomanic personality traits: A multi-method exploration of their association with normal and abnormal dimensions of personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 898-905.
14.
EckbladM.ChapmanL. J. (1986). Development and validation of a scale for hypomanic personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 214-222.
15.
EmmonsR. A. (1984). Factor analysis and construct validity of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48, 291-300.
16.
FulfordD.JohnsonS. L.CarverC. S. (2008). Commonalities and differences in characteristics of persons at risk for narcissism and mania. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1427-1438.
17.
FurnhamA.BateyM.AnandK.ManfieldJ. (2008). Personality, hypomania, intelligence and creativity. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1060-1069.
18.
GloverN.MillerJ. D.LynamD. R.CregoC.WidigerT. A. (2012). The Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory: A five-factor measure of narcissistic personality traits. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94, 500-512.
19.
GruberJ.JohnsonS. L.OveisC.KeltnerD. (2008). Risk for mania and positive emotional responding: Too much of a good thing?Emotion, 8, 23-33.
20.
JohnsonS. L.LeedomL. J.MuhtadieL. (2012). The dominance behavioral system and psychopathology: Evidence from self-report, observational, and biological studies. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 692-743.
21.
KleinD. N.KotovR.BufferdS. J. (2011). Personality and depression: Explanatory models and review of the evidence. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7, 269-295.
22.
KotovR.GamezW.SchmidtF.WatsonD. (2010). Linking “big” personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 768-821. doi:10.1037/a0020327
23.
KruegerR. F.DerringerJ.MarkonK. E.WatsonD.SkodolA. E. (2012). Initial construction of a maladaptive personality trait model and inventory forDSM-5. Psychological Medicine, 42, 1879-1890.
24.
KubarychT. S.DearyI. J.AustinE. J. (2004). The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Factor structure in a non-clinical sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 857-872.
25.
KwapilT. R.MillerM. B.ZinserM. C.ChapmanL. J.ChapmanJ.EckbladM. (2000). A longitudinal study of high scorers on the Hypomanic Personality Scale. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 222-226.
26.
LeeK.AshtonM. C. (2005). Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism in the five-factor model and the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 1571-1582.
27.
MaxwellK.DonnellanM. B.HopwoodC. J.AckermanR. 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, 577-582.
28.
McCraeR. R.CostaP. T.Jr.MartinT. A. (2005). The NEO-PI-3: A more readable Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84, 261-270.
29.
McCraeR. R.KurtzJ. E.YamagataS.TerraccianoA. (2011). Internal consistency, retest reliability, and their implications for personality scale validity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 28-50.
30.
MillerJ. D.GaughanE. T.PryorL. R.KamenC.CampbellW. K. (2009). Is research using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory relevant for understanding narcissistic personality disorder?Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 482-488.
31.
MillerJ. D.HoffmanB. J.GaughanE. T.GentileB.MaplesJ.CampbellW. K. (2011). Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: A nomological network analysis. Journal of Personality, 79, 1013-1042.
32.
MillerJ. D.LynamD. R.McCainJ. L.FewL. R.CregoC.WidigerT. A.CampbellW. K. (2015). Thinking structurally about narcissism: An examination of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory and its components. Journal of Personality Disorders. Advance online publication. doi:10.1521/pedi_2015_29_177
33.
MillerJ. D.McCainJ.LynamD. R.FewL. R.GentileB.MacKillopJ.CampbellW. K. (2014). A comparison of the criterion validity of popular measures of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder via the use of expert ratings. Psychological Assessment, 26, 958-969.
34.
MillerJ. D.PriceJ.CampbellW. K. (2012). Is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory still relevant? A test of independent grandiosity and entitlement scales in the assessment of narcissism. Assessment, 19, 8-13.
35.
Naragon-GaineyK.WatsonD. (2014). Consensually-defined facets of personality as prospective predictors of change in depression symptoms. Assessment, 21, 387-403.
36.
Naragon-GaineyK.WatsonD.MarkonK. E. (2009). Differential relations of depression and social anxiety symptoms to the facets of extraversion/positive emotionality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 299-310.
37.
NewmanM. G.ZuelligA. R.KachinK. E.ConstantinoM. J.PrzeworskiA.EricksonT.Cashman-McGrathL. (2002). Preliminary reliability and validity of the GADQ-IV: A revised self-report diagnostic measure of generalized anxiety disorder. Behavior Therapy, 33, 215-233.
38.
OlssonU.DrasgowF.DoransN. J. (1982). The polyserial correlation coefficient. Psychometrika, 47, 337-347.
39.
PincusA. L.AnsellE. B.PimentelC. A.CainN. M.WrightA. G. C.LevyK. N. (2009). Initial construction and validation of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 21, 365-379.
40.
PincusA. L.LukowitskyM. R. (2010). Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 421-446.
41.
RaskinR.TerryH. (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.
42.
RocheM. J.PincusA. L.LukowitskyM. R.MénardK. S.ConroyD. E. (2013). An integrative approach to the assessment of narcissism. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95, 237-248.
43.
RossS. R.BenningS. D.PatrickC. J.ThompsonA.ThurstonA. (2009). Factors of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory: Criterion-related validity and relationship to the BIS/BAS and five-factor models of personality. Assessment, 16, 71-87.
44.
SamuelD. B.WidigerT. A. (2008). Convergence of narcissism measures from the perspective of general personality functioning. Assessment, 15, 364-374.
45.
SantangeloP.ReinhardI.MussgayL.SteilR.SawitzkiG.KleinC.. . .Ebner-PriemerU. W. (2014). Specificity of affective instability in patients with borderline personality disorder compared to posttraumatic stress disorder, bulimia nervosa, and healthy controls. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 258-272.
46.
SaundersJ. B.AaslandO. G.BaborT. F.delaFuenteJ. R.GrantM. (1993). Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption–II. Addiction, 88, 791-804.
47.
SchaletB. D.DurbinC. E.RevelleW. (2011). Multidimensional structure of the Hypomanic Personality Scale. Psychological Assessment, 23, 504-522.
48.
SheehanD. V.LecrubierY.SheehanK. H.AmorimP.JanavasJ.WeillerE.. . .DunbarG. C. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59, 34-57.
49.
StantonK.WatsonD. (2015). Replicable facets of positive emotionality and their relations to psychopathology. Assessment, 22, 665-680. doi:10.1177/1073191114552471
50.
WalshM. A.DeGeorgeD. P.Barrantes-VidalN.KwapilT. R. (2015). A 3-year longitudinal study of risk for bipolar spectrum psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 486-497.
51.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A.ChmielewskiM.KotovR. (2013). The value of suppressor effects in explicating the construct validity of symptom measures. Psychological Assessment, 25, 929-941.
52.
WatsonD.Naragon-GaineyK. (2014). Personality, emotions, and the emotional disorders. Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 422-442.
53.
WatsonD.O’HaraM. W.Naragon-GaineyK.KoffelE.ChmielewskiM.KotovR.. . .RuggeroC. J. (2012). Development and validation of new anxiety and bipolar symptom scales for an expanded version of the IDAS (the IDAS-II). Assessment, 19, 399-420.
54.
WatsonD.StasikS. M.Ellickson-LarewS. A.StantonK. (2015). Extraversion and psychopathology: A facet-level analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 432-446.
55.
WatsonD.StasikS. M.RoE.ClarkL. A. (2013). Integrating normal and pathological personality: Relating the DSM-5 trait-dimensional model to general traits of personality. Assessment, 20, 312-326.
56.
WrightA. G. C.PincusA. L.ThomasK. M.HopwoodC. J.MarkonK. E.KruegerR. F. (2013). Conceptions of narcissism and the DSM-5 pathological personality traits. Assessment, 20, 339-352.
