The happy and unhappy faces of narcissism

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Abstract

Several theorists have argued in favor of a distinction between overt and covert narcissism, and factor analytic studies have supported this distinction. In this paper I demonstrate that overt narcissists report higher self-esteem and higher satisfaction with life, whereas covert narcissists report lower self-esteem and lower satisfaction with life. I also present mediational models to explain why overt narcissists are relatively happy and covert narcissists are relatively unhappy. In analyses using both partial correlations and structural equation modeling, self-esteem consistently mediated the associations between both types of narcissism and happiness, whereas self-deception did not. These results further demonstrate some of the self-centered benefits associated with overt narcissism and some of the strong psychological costs associated with covert narcissism.

Section snippets

Method

Two-hundred sixty-two undergraduates (146 female) completed a questionnaire packet in small groups. Participants sat at private desks in a large laboratory room. Participants with missing values on any of the variables of interest were excluded.

Results

Table 1 lists the interscale correlations among overt and covert narcissism, self-esteem, happiness and self-deception. As predicted, overt narcissists reported greater happiness and higher self-esteem, whereas covert narcissists reported diminished happiness and lower self-esteem. These results are consistent with the notion that overt narcissists enjoy some psychological benefits that covert narcissists do not enjoy.

Because past research has demonstrated that the NPI subscales capture

Discussion

A potential source of confusion in the study of narcissism is the fact that narcissistic features differ widely in their associations with psychological adjustment. In this study I demonstrated that indicators of overt narcissism were positively related to self-esteem and happiness whereas indicators of covert narcissism were negatively related to self-esteem and happiness. These results join a broader collection of evidence suggesting that overt and covert narcissism are very different

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NIMH predoctoral fellowship 1F31MH13036-01 awarded to the author. I thank Paul Watson, Ryan Brown, Katherine Rose and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also thank Shital Patel and Brian Pagkos for administering the study.

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