The Narcissism of Personal Uniqueness: A New Measure of the Vulnerability Phenotype

1
The Narcissism of Personal Uniqueness A New
Measure of the Vulnerability Phenotype Paul C.
Stey, Daniel K. Lapsley, Ashleigh A.
Renteria Available at www.nd.edu/dlapsle1
Figure 2. Test of Self-Esteem as a Mediator of
Grandiosity and Vulnerability Narcissism.
Background From its earliest formulations
narcissism was a developmental construct
however, developmental studies of narcissism have
not kept pace with research in clinical, social,
and personality psychology. Perhaps this is due
to the lack of suitable assessment tools that tap
normal manifestations of narcissism or at least
indices of narcissism other than overt
grandiosity.   The Narcissistic Personality
Inventory (NPI) is the default option for
assessing grandiose narcissism and is derived
from DSM diagnostic criteria of narcissistic
personality disorder. But there is an emerging
consensus that the narcissism phenotype includes
both grandiosity and vulnerability, although DSM
criteria have narrowed to focus exclusively on
overt grandiosity (XXXX). Narcissistic
vulnerability has been called the covert form
of narcissism, and is associated with
hypersensitivity, along with a proneness to
embarrassment and shame, acute self-consciousness
and shyness, and painful questions about
self-esteem and self-worth (Bleiberg, 1994, p.
31). Moreover, recent theory (Lapsley Stey, in
press) suggests that narcissistic vulnerability
may be particularly crucial for understanding
adolescents, particularly when manifested as a
pronounced sense of personal uniqueness (Mom,
you dont know how it feels!) Purpose (i.)
Explore a promising new measure of the
vulnerability narcissism phenotype. The Personal
Uniqueness Scale (PUS) assesses the conviction
that ones subjective experience cannot be
understood by others or meaningfully shared.
(ii.) Examine the structural and psychometric
properties of the PUS. We determine its
convergent and discriminant validity, and attempt
to document a construct-valid pattern of
associations with indices of mental health and
adaptation. (iii.) Finally, we explore whether
self-esteem mediates the relationship between
uniqueness and adaptation. Previous research has
shown that this mediational relationship obtains
only for overt grandiosity but not for
vulnerability narcissism.
Method Participants 241 undergraduates (137
females (Mage 20.3) Instruments and
Reliabilities Grandiose Narcissism
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI XXXX) a
Entitlement Scale (XXXX) a
Vulnerable Narcissism Hypersensitive
Narcissism Scale (XXXX) a Personal
Uniqueness Scale a
Figure 1. Personal Uniqueness Scale

• Results and Conclusions
• The Personal Uniqueness Scale (PUS) was
  positively correlated with another measure of
  dysfunctional individuation.
• The PUS was positively correlated with measures
  of adjustment problems, and negatively correlated
  with measures of positive adjustment.
• Principal component analysis of the PUS revealed
  a two-factor structure. The second factor was
  subsequently dropped due to the small number of
  items and its weak reliability.
• These findings provide evidence for the
  convergent and discriminant validity of the
  17-item Personal Uniqueness Scale.

Society for Research in Child Development Montreal
, March 2011