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Narcissistic fragility: rethinking its links to explicit and implicit self-esteem

Narcissistic fragility: rethinking its links to explicit and implicit self-esteem
Narcissistic fragility: rethinking its links to explicit and implicit self-esteem
Several studies have tested whether narcissism is a compensatory reaction to underlying ego fragility by examining narcissism's empirical links to both explicit self-esteem (ESE) and implicit self-esteem (ISE), under the general expectation that narcissists should exhibit an abundance of ESE but a dearth of ISE. However, not only have these studies yielded conflicting findings, they have also proceeded from divergent theoretical assumptions that shape the interpretation of their findings. Here, we draw out the implications of three prominent models of the interrelationships between narcissism, ESE, and ISE, before reassessing those interrelationships in a large multi-session study. Two (out of three) indices of ISE covaried negatively with narcissism, consistent with the view that ISE is a global marker for ego fragility. We contextualize our findings in terms of recent research and propose a new mechanism linking ISE to ego fragility.
implicit measures, implicit self-esteem, indirect measures, narcissism, self-esteem
1529-8868
142-161
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2

Gregg, Aiden P. and Sedikides, Constantine (2010) Narcissistic fragility: rethinking its links to explicit and implicit self-esteem. Self and Identity, 9 (2), 142-161. (doi:10.1080/15298860902815451).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Several studies have tested whether narcissism is a compensatory reaction to underlying ego fragility by examining narcissism's empirical links to both explicit self-esteem (ESE) and implicit self-esteem (ISE), under the general expectation that narcissists should exhibit an abundance of ESE but a dearth of ISE. However, not only have these studies yielded conflicting findings, they have also proceeded from divergent theoretical assumptions that shape the interpretation of their findings. Here, we draw out the implications of three prominent models of the interrelationships between narcissism, ESE, and ISE, before reassessing those interrelationships in a large multi-session study. Two (out of three) indices of ISE covaried negatively with narcissism, consistent with the view that ISE is a global marker for ego fragility. We contextualize our findings in terms of recent research and propose a new mechanism linking ISE to ego fragility.

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More information

Published date: April 2010
Keywords: implicit measures, implicit self-esteem, indirect measures, narcissism, self-esteem
Organisations: Human Wellbeing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 145687
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/145687
ISSN: 1529-8868
PURE UUID: e73fda31-316e-4916-9aa5-a7285dc59bfb
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 20 Apr 2010 13:17
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:43

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