EXAMINING DYNAMIC PROCESSES UNDERLYING MANIFESTATIONS OF PATHOLOGICAL NARCISSISM

Narcissism has captivated the interest of clinicians, researchers across diverse fields, and popular media. Pathological narcissism can have devastating personal and social impacts. Despite longstanding interest in the narcissism, the scientific study of it has been heating up over the past decade. Most of this research uses dispositional measures, which ask how individuals generally behave, think, and feel across a wide range of situations. However, clinical observation, theory, and emerging research suggests that narcissism manifests in fluctuations between grandiose and vulnerable states over time. Therefore, we seek to understand what leads to exacerbations of grandiosity (e.g., exhibitionism, explotaitiveness) and vulnerability (e.g., defensive withdrawal, hostility) across time and situations. We are currently working on basic measurement of momentary grandiosity and vulnerability (Edershile et al., in preparation), fundamental description of the timing and patterning of the expression and shifts between states (e.g., using dynamic structural equation modeling of ambulatory assessment data in both student and community samples), as well as triggers for each state (e.g., Wright et al., 2017).