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Narcissism and Hypomania Revisited: a Test of the Similarities and Differences in Their Empirical Networks

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Abstract

The goal of the present research was to clarify the relationship between narcissism and hypomania, both of which are multidimensional in nature. More specifically, this study examines the relations between two narcissism dimensions (grandiose and vulnerable) and three hypomania dimensions (social vitality, mood volatility, and excitement) in relation to adverse developmental experiences, affective experiences, a multidimensional model of impulsivity, and general personality traits. The absolute similarities across the patterns of correlations manifested by the narcissism and hypomania subscales were then examined. Like the multidimensionality found in narcissism in which grandiose and vulnerable narcissism manifest unrelated or negatively related empirical networks, the same was true for the hypomania dimensions. Grandiose narcissism manifested substantially similar empirical profiles with the hypomania components of social vitality and, to a lesser extent, excitement. Conversely, vulnerable narcissism manifested a profile quite similar to a third hypomania component – mood volatility. These findings are discussed in the context of the difficulty in developing robust and coherent research literatures when using multidimensional total scores for either narcissism or hypomania.

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Notes

  1. A fair amount of research has been dedicated to uncovering gender differences in trait narcissism (Grijalva et al., 2015). Given interest in this topic, we tested the overall correlational profiles for narcissism in both men and women across criteria. Overall, men and women demonstrated highly similar narcissism profiles (ICC DE  = .81, p < .001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Lane Siedor, Jessica L. Maples-Keller, Joshua D. Miller & W. Keith Campbell

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  1. Lane Siedor
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  2. Jessica L. Maples-Keller
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  3. Joshua D. Miller
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  4. W. Keith Campbell
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Correspondence to Lane Siedor.

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There was no funding necessary for this project. Participants received class credit for their participation.

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Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Siedor, L., Maples-Keller, J.L., Miller, J.D. et al. Narcissism and Hypomania Revisited: a Test of the Similarities and Differences in Their Empirical Networks. Curr Psychol 35, 244–254 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9408-4

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