Likeability and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory

1
Likeability and the Narcissistic Personality
Inventory Jason L. Pagan1, Marci Gleason1, Laurel
Newman1, Eric Turkheimer2, Thomas F.
Oltmanns1 1Washington University in St. Louis,
2University of Virginia
Introduction According to the DSM-IV-TR
definition, narcissistic personality disorder
(NPD) is characterized by a host of features,
including grandiosity, a fragile self-image,
exploitation, lack of empathy, envy, and hostile
reactions. The presence of these NPD features is
presumably associated with significant distress
or impairment in social functioning. In fact,
the presence of harmful dysfunction is crucial
for NPD to be justified as a disorder instead of
just a set of peculiar habits (1, 2, 3). Recent
evidence from personality and social psychology
have demonstrated, however, that many who score
high in NPD traits using the Narcissistic
Personality Inventory (NPI 4) are well-adjusted,
with high self-esteem (5). The apparent
contradiction between pathological traits and
findings of good adjustment may be the result of
having factors within the NPI that relate to both
positive and negative outcomes and adjustment (6,
7). Scoring highly on either the factors related
to positive outcomes (Leadership/Authority
Superiority/Arrogance Self-Absorption/Self-Admira
tion) or the more pathological factor
(Exploitativeness/Entitlement) may identify
someone as narcissist but may not be equally
indicative of social impairments (5). Here, we
utilized data from a larger study of self- and
peer-reported PD traits (8) to examine whether
those who score higher on the various NPI factors
are liked (likeability) by others and whether
these individuals are high on self- or
peer-reported NPD traits. The design of this
study also allowed for the unique opportunity to
examine whether those who are high on the more
pathological exploitativeness/entitlement factor
tend to like other people in their group less
well.

• Mixed Effects Modeling Procedure
• Do people high on the exploitativeness/entitlement
  (Exploit) factor of the NPI rate others as less
  likable?
• Gender, Exploit factor scores, and an interaction
  term were entered into a mixed effects modeling
  procedure (accounts for dependency between raters
  and ratees) to predict how well people at varying
  levels of Exploit like others in their group.
• Variable B SD t value p value
• Intercept 2.23 0.07
  31.44 lt 0.001
• Sex (F 1) -0.07 0.09
  -0.76 0.45
• Exploit Factor -0.10 0.05
  -2.16 0.03
• Sex Exploit 0.12 0.06
  1.92 0.056

• Method
• Participants
• 116 first-year law students (49 male) from the
  University of Virginia
• The average age was approximately 26 (range 23
  44)
• Tested at the end of their first year in cohorts
  of 8-20 students who went through orientation,
  studied, and took all of their classes together
• Measures
• The Multi-source Assessment of Personality
  Pathology (MAPP 8) The MAPP consists of 105
  items, 81 of which are lay translations of the 10
  DSM-IV PD criteria. It includes both self-report
  and peer-report versions of identical items.
  Initially, participants were asked to rate (from
  0 to 3) how well they LIKE each person in their
  group. Next, participants completed the peer
  nomination section and then self-reported on the
  same items.
• The Narcissistic Personality Inventory-Revised
  (NPI 9) The NPI is the most widely used measure
  of narcissism. The revised version consists of 40
  forced-choice items related to narcissism. Scores
  range from zero to 40. On average, undergraduates
  score between 15 and 16 on this measure (10, 11).
• Assessment Procedure and Variable Creation
• Near the end of their first year in law school,
  students were brought together to provide some
  basic demographic information and to complete
  several measures on a computer, including the
  ones mentioned above. Students required
  approximately two hours to complete the protocol.

• Results and Conclusions
• Means for Liking and Narcissism (NA) Split by
  Gender

• Discussion
• Both males and female law students reported
  high levels of narcissistic traits on the NPI
  compared to undergraduate samples (10, 11),
  particularly those traits related to
  exploitativeness and entitlement.
• The strong negative association found between
  liking and the Exploit factor (but not the other
  three) and the positive association between the
  Exploit factor and DSM-based narcissism (both
  self- and peer-report) is consistent with the
  assertion that the Exploit factor is associated
  with pathology (5, 7), but only for males!
• Higher self-reported narcissism on the
  DSM-based MAPP and on the NPI (even when Exploit
  is high) were not associated with social
  impairment for females. More work is needed to
  understand this gender difference.
• Males, but not females, high in Exploit also
  demonstrated more pathology when assessing the
  likeability of others Males higher in Exploit
  traits of narcissism derogated others by rating
  them as less likeable, which is consistent with
  a pathological form of narcissism (DSM-IV-TR).

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• Poster presentation at the annual meeting of
  the Society for Research in Psychopathology
  (October, 2005).
• This research was supported by a grant from
  the NIMH ( MH51187).