The DOI matches its Crossref record; 246 of the 249 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Trait entitlement: A cognitive-personality source of vulnerability to psychological distress.
Abstract
Psychological entitlement is a personality trait characterized by pervasive feelings of deservingness, specialness, and exaggerated expectations. The present review expands upon this understanding by conceptualizing entitlement as a cognitive-personality vulnerability to psychological distress. A review of research is conducted, and a novel, multipart model is described by which entitlement may be seen as such a vulnerability. First, exaggerated expectations, notions of the self as special, and inflated deservingness associated with trait entitlement present the individual with a continual vulnerability to unmet expectations. Second, entitled individuals are likely to interpret these unmet expectations in ways that foster disappointment, ego threat, and a sense of perceived injustice, all of which may lead to psychological distress indicators such as dissatisfaction across multiple life domains, anger, and generally volatile emotional responses. Furthermore, in the wake of disappointment, ego threat, or perceived injustice, entitled individuals are likely to attempt to bolster their entitled self-concept, leading to a reinforcement of entitled beliefs, thereby initiating the cycle again. At each stage of this process, entitlement presents the individual with the possibility of experiencing distress, predisposes further risk factors for distress (e.g., the subsequent steps in the model), and increases the risk of interpersonal conflict, again leading to distress. A review of relevant empirical data suggests preliminary support for this conceptual model of entitlement. (PsycINFO Database Record
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Second, because of their heightened sense of entitlement (i.e., their sense of inherent deservedness), narcissists might form exaggerated expectations of status acquisition (Grubbs & Exline, 2016).”
From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Grubbs & Exline, 2016
Citations
Cites
The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.117.3.497 · Cited by 23,245
Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect.
Higgins, E. T. (1987) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.94.3.319 · Cited by 7,219
(1993) · Cited by 7,136
The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion
NEFF, K. D. (2003) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298860309027 · Cited by 6,436
Self-Compassion: An Alternative Conceptualization of a Healthy Attitude Toward Oneself
NEFF, K. (2003) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298860309032 · Cited by 5,440
Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.96.3.465 · Cited by 4,636
Kawachi, I. I. (2001) · Journal of Heredity · doi:10.1093/jurban/78.3.458 · Cited by 3,565
Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.456 · Cited by 3,378
Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.1.146 · Cited by 3,325
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1 · Cited by 3,318
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Narcissism Spectrum Model: A Synthetic View of Narcissistic Personality
Krizan, Z., & Herlache, A. D. (2018) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868316685018 · Cited by 807
The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit
Grapsas, S., Brummelman, E., Back, M. D., & Denissen, J. J. A. (2020) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691619873350 · Cited by 312
“Second, because of their heightened sense of entitlement (i.e., their sense of inherent deservedness), narcissists might form exaggerated expectations of status acquisition (Grubbs & Exline, 2016).”
BackgroundInternet pornography use and sexual motivation: a systematic review and integration
Grubbs, J. B., Wright, P. J., Braden, A. L., Wilt, J. A., & Kraus, S. W. (2019) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2019.1584045 · Cited by 196
Self-citationIssues resolved and unresolved in pathological narcissism
Wright, A. G. C., & Edershile, E. A. (2017) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.10.001 · Cited by 175
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pornography habits: a global analysis of Google Trends
Zattoni, F., Gül, M., Soligo, M., Morlacco, A., Motterle, G., Collavino, J., Barneschi, A. C., Moschini, M., & Moro, F. D. (2020) · International Journal of Impotence Research · doi:10.1038/s41443-020-00380-w · Cited by 166
Metadata
- Authors
- Grubbs, J. B., & Exline, J. J.
- Affiliations
- Bowling Green State University (US)
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 2016-11
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1204-1226
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W2512067553
- Cited by
- 180
- References
- 249
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 16.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- John Templeton Foundation (36094)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- psychological entitlement, psychological distress, self-concept, ego threat, perceived injustice, disappointment, anger, emotional volatility, interpersonal conflict, self-concept maintenance
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Personality, Self Concept, Stress, Psychological
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
