PSYC1004 Study Guide - Final Guide: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy
The Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy
Paulhus and Williams (2004)
• Aim: are narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism conceptually distinct or equivalent?
• Results - correlation between psychopathy and narcissism is strong, correlation between psychopathy
and Machiavellianism is moderation, and correlation between narcissism and Machiavellianism is weak.
• Differential correlations:
o Narcissism - high extraversion, high openness to experience, higher intelligence, high self-
enhancement.
o Psychopathy - high extraversion, high openness, low neuroticism, self-enhancement, low
conscientiousness.
o Machiavellianism - low conscientiousness, no self-enhancement.
o All three personalities - low agreeableness.
Muris et al. 2017 →
The Dark Triad
Narcissism
• Introduced in 1898 by Ellis - people who direct their sexual energy towards
themselves.
• Freud's 1914 essay - "The libido that has been withdrawn from the external
world has been directed to the ego and thus gives rise to an attitude which may
be called narcissism".
After Freud
• The term narcissism has been used widely among psychodynamic theorists, but
also among personality and social psychologists.
Conceptual Confusion
• Defined in many different ways.
• Narcissism is "an unmanageably diverse and amorphous construct and
therefore, a highly problematic empirical entity".
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behaviour), need for admiration,
and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of
contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance,
beauty, or ideal love.
3. Believes that he or she is 'special' and unique and can only be understood
by or associate with other special or high-status people.
4. Requires excessive admiration.
5. Has a sense of entitlement (i.e. unreasonable expectations of especially
favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her
expectations).
6. Is interpersonally exploitative.
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognise or identity with the feelings and
needs of others.
8. Is often envious of others and believes others are envious of them.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes.
Two Kinds of Narcissism
• Certain theorists tend to disagree and argue that there are two main kinds of
narcissism:
• Eg: Overt vs. covert narcissist, or grandiose vs. vulnerable narcissist.
Wink 1991
• Aim: To investigate whether overt/grandiose and covert/vulnerable narcissism
are distinct constructs.
• Procedure - participants completed 6 different Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory narcissism scales and numerous other personality scale.
• 76 male participants and 76 female participants were also rated by their
spouses.
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