Social Media Use and Vulnerable Narcissism: The Differential Roles of Oversensitivity and Egocentricity

Narcissism is a multi-dimensional personality trait characterised by grandiosity, vanity, low empathy, and a desire for admiration. Previous research has suggested that social media sites are ideal platforms for people with narcissistic traits to satisfy a desire for attention. However, less is understood about the relationship between social media and vulnerable narcissism, characterised by vulnerability, insecurity, and oversensitivity. A total of 115 participants completed the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS) and questions relating to social media use. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor model of vulnerable narcissism; oversensitivity and egocentrism. Results showed that greater oversensitivity was significantly associated with greater scores in all six aspects of social media use. Specifically, time spent on social media, frequency of posts, concerns about numbers of likes and comments, being overly sensitive about negative remarks, feelings of jealousy, and a greater difference in how they portray themselves on social media compared to real life. Egocentricity was significantly associated with less concern over negative remarks and a greater difference in how they portray themselves on social media compared to real life. These results suggest that vulnerable narcissism is not a unitary trait and that subfactors oversensitivity and egocentricity contribute differentially to aspects of social media use.

The associations of covert narcissism, self-compassion, and shamefocused coping strategies with depression

We investigated how covert narcissism influences depression through shame-focused coping strategies, and tested the moderating effect of self-compassion in this mediating link. Participants were 316 Chinese international students living in South Korea who completed a battery of measures, including the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Compass of Shame Scale, the depression items of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, and the Chinese Self-Compassion Scale. We found an association between covert narcissism and depression, and this link was mediated by the shame-focused coping strategies of attack self and withdrawal. Further, self-compassion had a significant moderating effect in the relationship between covert narcissism and the coping strategies of attack self or withdrawal. These findings support a moderated mediation model in which self-compassion buffered the relationship between covert narcissism and depression by mediating the link between covert narcissism and the attack self and withdrawal coping strategies. Our findings may be useful for understanding and helping individuals who have a high level of covert narcissism.

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory: Measurement Invariance Across Serbian and USA Samples and Further Validation

The aim of this research was to explore measurement invariance across samples from Serbia and the USA (Study 1) and to further validate the Serbian adaptation of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory – PNI (Study 2). The results supported the original seven-factor first-order structure as well as the hierarchical structure of the PNI with Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability as the second-order factors. Further, scalar invariance between the two versions of the PNI was achieved. Relations between Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability and other measures of grandiose and hypersensitive narcissism supported the validity of their scores. Among HEXACO traits, both Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability showed substantial negative correlations with Honesty-Humility. The main distinctions between the two aspects of narcissism lie in the positive relations with Neuroticism and negative relations with self-esteem, both of which are higher for Narcissistic vulnerability. The results support good psychometric properties of the PNI scores and add to the PNI’s cross-cultural validity.

Brief Report: Relationships Among Facets of Narcissism, Symptoms of Eating Disorders, and Symptoms of Muscle Dysmorphia

Previous research exploring the relationship between muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and disordered eating behaviors in relation to personality characteristics, particularly narcissism, has yielded interesting, though often conflictual, results. This study explores these relationships through assessing muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and disordered eating in relation to grandiose and hypersensitive narcissism. Participants included 173 male college students who were recruited via departmental Study Board. Participants completed demographic information, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-40, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Muscle Dysmorphia Questionnaire, the Drive for Muscularity Scale, and the Eating Attitudes Test-26. Results indicated a positive relationship between muscle dysmorphia symptomatology and hypersensitive narcissism, and positive relationships between drive for muscularity and facets of grandiose narcissism. Results indicated that disordered eating was not related to narcissism. Results provide direction for the further study of the dimensional structure of the construct of narcissism and treatment implications for those suffering from muscle dysmorphia.

Maladaptive Personality Traits and Psychopathological Symptoms in Individuals with the First Suicidal Attempt and with Chronic Suicidal Behavior

The paper compares the severity of maladaptive personality traits and psychopathological symptoms in patients with primary and repeated suicide attempts. The study involved patients of the somatopsychiatric department of the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Care (N=61), who committed the first suicide attempt (n=31) or a repeated attempt (n=30). The results of the study did not reveal differences between the two groups in the severity of symptoms of social anxiety, depression and trait anxiety. However, indicators of such maladaptive personality traits as perfectionism and hypersensitive narcissism were significantly higher in the group of patients with a repeated suicide attempt. This group also manifested higher rates of the severity of borderline personality disorder traits and significant correlations between measures of psychopathology and maladaptive personality traits listed above. Conclusion: timely diagnostics of maladaptive traits and psychotherapy targeting socially prescribed perfectionism, hypersensitive narcissism, and borderline personality features after the first suicide attempt is necessary to prevent repeated ones.

Measurement of narcissism: From classical applications to modern approaches

Different conceptions of narcissism exist within the literature such as grandiose, vulnerable, pathological, collective, and communal, each of which can be measured using self-report measures. Within the current paper, we review and discuss most of the existing measures of these different trait (i.e., non-clinical) narcissism constructs. This includes an examination of their underlying theoretical foundations and an evaluation of the scale construction process. We start our review from the one-dimensional measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism such as the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen, the Short Dark Triad, the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale, the Narcissistic Vulnerability Scale, and the Single Item Narcissism Scale. Then, we introduce the multidimensional measures to study narcissism such as the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. The r view concludes by presenting measures of understudied narcissistic constructs such as the Communal Narcissism Inventory and the Collective Narcissism Scale. In general, using one-dimensional scales might provide important insights into the general underpinnings of narcissistic personality, however assessment via multi-dimensional tools better reflects its complex nature.

Dropout and narcissism: an exploratory research about situational factors and personality variables of the psychotherapist

The premature interruption of psychotherapeutic treatments is a significant phenomenon, with rates that can be above 50%, although differences emerge among studies. In general, the variables related to the psychotherapists have a significant effect on the treatment and a greater extent than the situational variables. In this study a multi-method research has been conducted to test the situations of impasse ending in dropout and the relationship between these situations and the covert narcissistic dimension of the therapist. Each participant was administrated the Impasse Interview, asking the therapist to focus on a salient or recent dropout case, and the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale. The linguistic analysis of the interviews carried out with T-Lab produced 4 thematic clusters. Furthermore, as for the covert narcissistic dimension, 11 therapists reported a score below the average (Group A) and 9 scoring in the average (Group B). Finally, the association between the four clusters and the two groups of therapists was investigated. The therapeutic alliance and the emotional reaction of the therapist, influenced by his narcissistic dimension, represent key variables for the outcome of the therapy.

Shades of Foods: Prevalence and correlates of food addiction

Background: Growing evidence suggests that certain foods have addictive properties. Food addiction has sparked interest within the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food addiction to examine their differential characteristics, and the association between food addiction symptoms and physical and psychological variables, such as eating-related behaviours, body mass index (BMI), and personality traits (e.g., types of narcissism).Method: The sample consisted of 208 participants (mean age = 26.82 ± 7.89 years; BMI = 27.53 ± 12.21 kg/m2; 80.3% female; 79.3% White). Participants completed a web-based self-report survey of food addiction containing the questionnaires to measure these constructs. The main scale used as an outcome variable was the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS).Results: 14.4% of participants met the YFAS diagnostic criteria for potential food addiction. Individuals who met the criteria displayed greater food craving, more frequent consumption of sugary foods, the tendency to develop eating disorders, and more negative attitudes toward and thoughts of physical appearance. Those categorised as food addicts also exhibited a lower level of self-esteem and grandiose narcissism, and a high level of hypersensitive narcissism. Food craving and body image issues were associated with the severity of food addiction.Conclusions: The findings of this investigation supported the construct of food addiction as both, addictive behaviour and behavioural addiction. Furthermore, it was suggested that this potential addiction is related to overweight and obese individual young females.

Psychological Factors of Problematic Internet Use in Adolescent and Young Girls

The article introduces a study of the problematic Internet use (PIU) interrelationship with psychological well-being, psychopathological symptoms, and various personality traits. The study involved 432 females aged 14 to 23 years old (M = 17.2, SD = 2) and evaluated with Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale (GPIUS3), Ten Item Personality Measure (TIPI), Perfectionism Inventory, Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). The results indicate that PIU is associated with various psychopathological symptoms and a decrease in psychological well-being. According to multiple linear regression analysis, hypersensitive narcissism, perfectionism, and phobic anxiety are found to be significant predictors of PIU. Protective factors are Conscientiousness of the Big Five and the level of psychological well-being. The paper suggests risk and protective factors that must be considered when preventing the Problematic Internet Use in adolescent and young girls.