A Narcissistic Personality Inventory.

Abstract

The immediate stimulus for developing a test of narcissism was the inclusion of a new category, the narcissistic personality disorder, in the diagnostic manual (DSM-111) being prepared by the American Psychiatric Association. The narcissistic personality disorder is defined by the following characteristics: ( 1 ) grandiose sense of one's self-irnportance; ( 2 ) preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, o r ideal love; ( 3 ) exhibitionism; ( 4 ) responds to criticism, indifference, or defeat either with cool indifference or with marked feelungs of rage, inferiority, shame, humiliation, o r emptiness; ( 5 ) entitlement, expecting spec~al favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities; (6) exploitativeness; ( 7 ) relationships vacillate between the extremes of overidealization and devaluation; and ( 8 ) lack of empathy. W e made up 223 items which sampled the domain of the narcissistic personality as defined by the foregoing characteristics. Each item is a pair of statements, one narcissistic and the other nonnarcissistic. Subjects are required to check one of rhe two statements. This is an example.