Validation of self-report measures of narcissism against a diagnostic interview

Stéphanie Baggio; Katia Iglesias; Miguel Duarte; Rosetta Nicastro; Roland Hasler; Sebastian Euler; Martin Debbané; Vladan Starcevic; Nader Perroud

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266540

Validation of self-report measures of narcissism against a diagnostic interview

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 6;17(4):e0266540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266540. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Stéphanie Baggio^{1

2}, Katia Iglesias³, Miguel Duarte⁴, Rosetta Nicastro⁴, Roland Hasler^{4

5

6}, Sebastian Euler⁷, Martin Debbané^{8

9

10}, Vladan Starcevic¹¹, Nader Perroud^{4

5

12}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Institute of Primary Health Care (BIHAM), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ School of Health Sciences (HEdS-FR), HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, Fribourg, Switzerland.
⁴ Service of Psychiatric Specialties, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ NCCR Synapsy, Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁷ Department of Consultation Psychiatry and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁸ Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁹ Developmental Imaging and Psychopathology Lab, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
¹¹ University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Medical School, Nepean Clinical School, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
¹² Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Abstract

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) are often used to screen for pathological narcissism but have rarely been validated against a clinician-administered diagnostic interview. Our study evaluated the convergent validity of the PNI and NPI against a diagnostic interview for narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) in a clinical population. We used data from a psychiatric outpatient center located in Switzerland (n = 123). Correlations between PNI/NPI and NPD ranged between .299 and .498 (common variance 9.0-24.8%). The PNI and NPI should be used carefully to screen for NPD. We highlight a need to increase the compatibility between the conceptual underpinnings of the PNI, NPI and NPD.

MeSH terms

Health Facilities
Humans
Narcissism*
Personality Disorders* / diagnosis
Personality Disorders* / psychology
Personality Inventory
Self Report

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.