 29. Narcissism in Contemporary Personality Psychology  637
porally textured and nuanced information 
(e.g., within situation assessments).
Summary: Narcissism  in Contemporary 
Personality  Psychology
Our goal in this chapter has been to review 
the status of narcissism in contemporary 
personality psychology and to offer some 
commentary and perspective on the issues to 
guide future studies. The key themes of this 
chapter can be summarized by five points.
1. The term narcissism  is associated with 
multiple dimensions of personality, and re -
searchers debate as to which phenotypic ex -
pressions are most central to the construct. 
The constructs typically fall under the do -
mains of grandiosity, entitlement, and vul -
nerability as specified by the NSM (Krizan 
& Herlache, 2018).
2. The three constructs associated with 
the NSM seem to have relatively distinct 
nomological networks. There are also hints 
that entitlement and grandiosity are geneti -
cally distinct. The conventional term narcis -
sist might reflect individuals with particular 
constellations of traits (e.g., high grandiosity 
and high entitlement) rather than refer to a 
true natural kind of personality type. Re -
searchers should continue to study the sep -
arate components of narcissism, potential 
interactions between the components, and 
the possibility of specific trait constellations 
giving rise to psychologically interesting pat -
terns of behavior.
3. Existing inventories and stand-alone 
measures widely used to study narcissism 
in the current literature seem to focus on 
one or more dimensions associated with the 
NSM but not all three simultaneously. Some 
provide a narrower content focus than the 
NSM. Thus, researchers may need to use 
multiple measures until a psychometrically 
sound omnibus inventory is widely adopted 
by the field.
4. Narcissistic personality attributes are 
heritable, suggesting that genetic factors 
play a role in the development of narcissism. 
On the other hand, classic theories sug -
gest that parenting practices are a primary driver in the development of narcissism. Al -
though the existing developmental literature 
is sparse, there is converging evidence from 
cross-  sectional and longitudinal studies that 
parental hostility and low monitoring are 
associated with entitlement. Future develop -
mental theorizing should consider how early 
emerging temperamental differences trans -
act with parenting and other social relation -
ships and experiences to produce narcissistic 
attributes.
5. There are ongoing controversies about 
whether normal and pathological elements 
of narcissism are distinct constructs and 
how to integrate expressions of vulnerability 
and grandiosity at a within-  person level. We 
think that grandiosity, vulnerability, and en -
titlement are normal dimensions in the sense 
that all people have different levels on these 
latent entities. Extreme levels (high or low) 
can be pathological in the sense of causing 
interpersonal and intrapersonal distress. 
We also believe that greater attention to the 
within-  person processes underlying grandi -
osity and vulnerability are a promising path 
forward.
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