Three types of adult narcissism, as assessed with Wink’s (1991) observational rating method, were studied over a period of 25 years, with participants from the Intergenerational Studies of the Institute of Human Development, UC Berkeley. Narcissism was assessed on three occasions, from age 34 to age 59. Hypersensitive narcissism was found to decrease, Autonomous narcissism increased, and Willfulness narcissism did not change with age. At age 34, both Willfulness and Autonomous narcissism were related to agentic personality characteristics, but only Autonomous narcissism was related to the communal personality characteristic of empathy. Change in narcissism between age 34 and age 59 was shown to predict change in personality at age 71. The agentic personality characteristics that had been associated with Willfulness narcissism at age 34 were no longer characteristic of those individuals at age 71. In addition, in contrast to Autonomous narcissism, at age 34 Willfulness and Hypersensitivity were associated with emotional maladjustment, and predicted continuing maladjustment and less favorable life outcomes in later life.
Narcissism is generally defined as having a highly positive or inflated self-concept, a strong need to be admired by others, fantasizing about fame or power, responding to criticism with self-enhancing attribution, being condescending toward others, and lacking commitment and caring in interpersonal relationships (e.g., Campbell et al., 2002 and Morf and Rhodewalt, 2001). Narcissists must continuously ascertain whether others admire them and will meet their egotistic needs (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). The central question for the narcissist, as in the lyrics above, is “will you provide me with the positive recognition that I require, and will you (metaphorically) feed me the admiration I desire?” The lyrics raise the additional question, “Will you continue to treat me this way as I grow old(er)?”
Although the characteristics indicated above may lead to a clinical diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), narcissism may also exist at a sub-clinical level, sometimes characterized as “normal” narcissism (Sedikides, Rudich, Gregg, Kumashiro, & Rusbult, 2004). It is this type of narcissism that we study in this paper.
Narcissists tend to be characterized as rather unpleasant people – selfish, overly dominant, hostile and arrogant (e.g., Colvin et al., 1995 and Morf and Rhodewalt, 2001). However, some narcissists fare quite well, have successful careers and are lauded by the public. They convey an aura of charm and social facility, making them initially attractive (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). Narcissists are likely to be drawn to high pressure, high profile professions where their self-confidence and wish for admiration serves them well (Wallace & Baumeister, 2002). Indeed, research shows that many sought after celebrities from the entertainment world are more narcissistic than the general population (Young & Pinsky, 2006), and it has been suggested that narcissism underlies the behavior that draws crowds to admire them (Grigoriadis, 2005). For example, narcissists perform better in public than non-narcissists, when they can be admired for their achievements (Campbell et al., 2002 and Wallace and Baumeister, 2002). Thus, in early adulthood, narcissism is often associated with desirable self-enhancing personality characteristics, and these features contribute to the initial likeability of narcissistic individuals (e.g., Oltmanns et al., 2004 and Sedikides and Gregg, 2001).
Moreover, recent research has shown that narcissism is associated with popularity at first sight, before any interpersonal interaction has taken place. This immediate popularity of narcissists is based on several observable characteristics, including charming facial expression, self-assured body movements, humorous verbal expression, and wearing attractive attire (Back et al., 2010 and Vazire et al., 2008). The admiration received from others, which is based on these behavioral characteristics, likely reinforces both the attractive characteristics of dominance, leadership and authority, and the other less desirable characteristics of narcissism (e.g., exploitation and entitlement). However, in the long run, the negative features of narcissism are likely to result in interpersonal rejection (Campbell and Foster, 2002, Paulhus, 1998, Sedikides and Gregg, 2001 and Vazire and Funder, 2006).
1. Narcissism and aging
The majority of studies of narcissism have been carried out with young adults.
Little is known about narcissism in older age, and there have been no longitudinal published studies examining the development of narcissism from early adulthood to older age. Roberts, Edmonds, and Grijalva (2010) suggested that narcissism should decrease with age, since the narcissistic characteristic of not making commitments to others runs counter to normative pathways. Supporting this, a large scale, cross-sectional study of NPI narcissism found a steady decrease in narcissism between age 15 and 54, with a small increase after age 55 ( Foster, Misra, & Reidy, 2009). The present study tracks the longitudinal developmental trajectory of narcissism from age 34 to age 59.
Since clinical evidence indicates that beneath the surface grandiosity of the narcissistic personality, these individuals often have an underlying sense of low self-worth (Freud, 1957; Kohut, 1977; Millon, 1981),1 there is reason to think that the underlying self-doubts and insecurities may fail to support the continuation of the early personality characteristics that contribute to the attractiveness of narcissists. Thus, the present study also focuses on whether the personality traits associated with narcissism at age 34 continue to characterize these narcissists at an older age, or whether the early “bloom” has faded as these individuals grow older
