Narcissism, non-clinical

historical approaches to narcissism conceptualised grandiose and vulnerable narcissism as interchangeable (e.g. the psychodynamic mask model of narcissism) though these conceptualisations were based on clinical populations, which present with more severe forms of narcissism and are more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) (Freud, 1914/1957; Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1971). Based on this past work and more recent theories distinguishing maladaptive and adaptive forms of narcissism (see Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010), preliminary evidence indicates that at a clinical level, there may be overlap between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism; such that those who meet the criteria for NPD are also more likely to present with elevated levels of both types of narcissism (Jauk et al., 2017). However, these findings did not extend to the trait (i.e., non-clinical) level, where grandiose and vulnerable narcissism have emerged as largely discrete constructs. As this paper explores narcissism as a personality trait in the general population, the aetiology of NPD will not be explored, and further, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism will be treated as unique constructs. Specifically, we propose that these types of narcissism are likely to have different aetiological pathways, which could reflect the social learning and psychoanalytic theories mentioned above. Recent theories indicate that cold, abusive experiences in childhood may be uniquely associated with the development of traits underlying vulnerable narcissism (Miller et al., 2010) and parental overvaluation may be distinctly associated with greater grandiose narcissism (Otway & Vignoles, 2006).
----Subclinical
Category:Narcissism