We are who we thought we were: Confirming one's own antagonism levels.

Although many processes might contribute to the self-perpetuating nature of antagonistic personality, we proposed and tested the "antagonism-confirmation" perspective on this phenomenon. This perspective states that antagonistic personality is based in tendencies to confirm (vs. disconfirm) the self's beliefs about its personality. Importantly, this explanation uniquely predicts that antagonism-related personality constructs should relate to strategically adopting behaviors that vary on only their signification of higher or lower antagonism levels (and nothing more). In apparent privacy, nonclinical participants completed a color-gazing task, wherein antagonistic people ostensibly see colors become more (more-intense condition) or less intense (less-intense condition) while gazing at them. Consistent with the antagonism-confirmation perspective, antagonism-related personality constructs related to perceiving colors as turning more intense in the more-intense (vs. less-intense) condition. These effects could not be attributed to demand and occurred among a subsample of participants that indicated providing completely authentic responses. Furthermore, participants higher in antagonism-related personality constructs reported a greater likelihood of possessing antagonistic characteristics and that these characteristics were more beneficial; mediation evidence suggested that these reports were influenced by their confirmatory responding on the color-gazing task. Antagonism-confirmation tendencies might partly account for why antagonistic personality persists; broadly, the findings highlight the critical nature of identity management as a feature of antagonistic personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Revisiting the Interactive Effect of Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Responses to Ego Threat: Distinguishing Between Assertiveness and Intent to Harm.

We addressed whether narcissism and self-esteem synergize to enhance assertive responses and deter aggressive responses to ego-threatening provocation. Participants (N = 448) completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem, imagined ego-threatening provocation, and indicated their aggressive and assertive responses. Participants also completed individual difference measures of agreeableness, openness, status/dominance motivation, and endorsement of the notion that aggression begets power. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to reduce aggressive responses but enhance assertive responses to ego-threat; moreover, this interaction related to enhanced agreeableness, openness, status/dominance motivation, and reduced endorsement of the belief that aggression begets power, and these relations accounted, in part, for relations between the interaction and aggressive and assertive responses. Broadly, the findings contribute to the contentious issue of how self-evaluation influences responses to ego-threat; specifically, we would suggest that this issue be conceptualized in terms of synergistic effects of narcissism and self-esteem and distinguish between assertive versus aggressive responding.

Provoked Narcissistic Aggression: Examining the Role of De-Escalated and Escalated Provocations.

Theories have postulated why provocation is particularly likely to incite aggression for narcissists, but key propositions from such theories dealing with psychological process or boundary conditions have seldom been tested. Here, we investigated narcissists' cognitive, emotional, and motivational experience and aggression following escalated and de-escalated provocation. Participants (N = 680) completed measures of grandiose narcissism (normal and pathological expressions) and vulnerable narcissism. Next, participants simulated provocation via imagining everyday scenarios in which a provocateur either de-escalates (apologizes and expresses concern) or escalates (makes a spiteful remark) the provocation and then rated anger and humiliation, perceived "narcissistic injury," goals, and aggression. Expressions of grandiose narcissism, but vulnerable narcissism, more strongly related to aggression following escalated (vs. de-escalated) provocation. Path modeling revealed that perceived narcissistic injury and narcissistic-identity goals explained this relation for pathological grandiose narcissists, and revenge goals and narcissistic-identity goals explained this relation for normal grandiose narcissists. Conversely, vulnerable narcissism related more strongly to anger, perceived narcissistic injury, and narcissistic-identity goals following de-escalated (vs. escalated) provocation. Path modeling revealed that vulnerable narcissists' enhanced anger-induced aggression is bounded to de-escalated provocation. We discuss the findings in relation to various theories of provoked narcissistic aggression.

An interaction model for the role of self-evaluations and antagonistic pursuits in subjective well-being.

Popular theorizing about happiness pursuit emphasizes universal paths to happiness, but other theorizing acknowledges different people achieve happiness in different ways (i.e., subjective well-being, SWB). The present work extended this latter perspective by examining how antagonistic pursuit of a grandiose identity ('narcissistic antagonism') - generally thought to reduce narcissistic people's SWB - may relate to increased cognitive well-being (i.e., a component of SWB) for narcissistic people with lower self-esteem. In Study 1, participants (N = 417) reported their narcissism, self-esteem, narcissistic antagonism, and general life satisfaction (to index cognitive well-being). In Study 2 (pre-registered), participants (N = 450) reported their narcissism, self-esteem, narcissistic antagonism, general and domain-specific life satisfaction, and general affect (to index affective well-being, which is a different component of SWB). Both studies revealed narcissistic antagonism related to increased life satisfaction only for more (vs. less) narcissistic people with lower (vs. higher) self-esteem. Study 2 not only replicated this interactive pattern on satisfaction across various life domains but also revealed the interaction may be related to increased negative affect. Broadly, results highlight how different people may enhance features of SWB in different, even 'dark', ways.

Validating Circumplex Scales of Perceived Impairments and Benefits from prototypically problematic interpersonal tendencies.

Clinical and personality research and theorizing has benefitted from assessing people's experiences of interpersonal problems, but these assessments have neglected assessing people's subjective perceptions of impairments and benefits from such problems. To address this gap, 2 studies tested the reliability and validity of 2 interpersonal circumplex-based measures of subjectively perceived impairments ("Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Problems-Impairments" or "CSIP-Impairments") and benefits ("CSIP-Benefits") from prototypically problematic interpersonal tendencies. Study 1 (N = 291) found evidence supporting the internal consistencies and circumplex structures of both CSIP-Impairments and CSIP-Benefits, and it compared their structures to other IPC-based measures; Study 2 (N = 564) replicated support for these internal consistencies and circumplex structures and provided construct validity evidence for CSIP-Impairments and CSIP-Benefits by relating them to dark personalities and personality disorder traits. CSIP-Impairments and CSIP-Benefits may aid researchers and clinicians in further understanding and developing therapy strategies for treating problematic interpersonal tendencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Deprived and Grandiose Explanations for Psychological Entitlement: Implications for Theory and Measurement.

This work aimed to corroborate "vulnerable-based" and "grandiose-based" forms of psychological entitlement by amending the Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES; Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004), a popular unidimensional index of psychological entitlement. In 2 studies, participants completed PES items amended to include both deprived-identity-based and grandiose-identity-based rationales for item agreement and various individual-difference measures of constructs related to entitlement, self-evaluation, personality, and interpersonal orientations. The modified PES yielded a grandiose-based (PES-G) and vulnerable-based (PES-V) entitlement scale that showed good psychometric qualities. PES-G and PES-V converged well on core features of psychological entitlement (e.g., antagonistic outcomes) but generally failed to converge on self-evaluation, acquisitive versus defensive forms of entitlement, behavioral inhibition system and behavioral activation system, and interpersonal behavior indicative of claiming and cultivating grandiose versus deprived identities. This research supports the presence of grandiose-based and vulnerable-based entitlement forms, demonstrates a measurement technique to tap these forms, and suggests some theoretical implications.

'You Are What You Read:' Is selective exposure a way people tell us who they are?

Selective exposure is the tendency to gather viewpoint-congenial versus viewpoint-uncongenial information. Extant models of selective exposure suggest this tendency occurs because people anticipate reading congenial (vs. uncongenial) information will cause more favourable intrapersonal consequences. However, these models ignore the notion that people's information choices are, in part, symbolic gestures designed to convey identity-relevant beliefs to an audience through information display. Drawing from perspectives that emphasize human consumption as symbolic and a way to signal one's identity, we suggest that selective exposure pertains not only to information processing but also to conveying identity through information display. Experiment 1 showed that people characterize information display as a way to communicate their views to an audience. Experiments 2-4 showed that people are averse to displaying uncongenial versus congenial information (without processing the information), anticipate feeling more uncomfortable and more inauthentic merely displaying (without processing) uncongenial versus congenial information, and that people's intentions to engage in selective exposure in daily life are a function of their belief that selective-exposure displays convey their identity. None of these studies or findings can be generated from extant selective-exposure theories. Thus, selective-exposure theories are likely incomplete because they ignore people's beliefs and goals regarding information display.

Entitled Due to Deprivation vs. Superiority: Evidence That Unidimensional Entitlement Scales Blend Distinct Entitlement Rationales across Psychological Dimensions.

We aimed to corroborate the notion that the Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES), a popular unidimensional index of psychological entitlement, resembles a blend of vulnerable- and grandiose-based entitlement rationales across various psychological dimensions. College participants (N = 523) were randomly assigned to complete either the PES or a recently validated, multidimensional adaptation of the PES that purports to assess entitlement due to deprivation (vulnerable-based entitlement; "PES-V") and superiority (grandiose-based entitlement; "PES-G") claims. Participants then completed a battery of psychological dimensions including: narcissism constructs, interpersonal vulnerability and mood pathology, psychological health, normal personality and personality-disorder traits, motivation systems, a deprived identity, and status aspiration. Profile-similarity indices indicated that PES was more similar to PES-G than PES-V across psychological dimensions. Likewise, additional analyses revealed that indicators of "narcissistic entitlement" exhibited stronger profile similarity to PES-G than PES-V across psychological dimensions. In conclusion, profiles of the PES and narcissistic entitlement appear to blend grandiose- and vulnerable-based entitlement, but grandiose-based (vs. vulnerable-based) entitlement seems more prominent in the blend. As a result, unidimensional measures can create a somewhat misleading portrait of the psychologically entitled.

The experience of benefit and impairment of personality disorder traits and personality disorder trait attitudes.

Recent evidence suggests that people's personality disorder (PD) trait levels relate positively to attitudes toward that PD trait, but amid this evidence has arisen an incongruity. In separate studies, people's PD trait levels relate positively to rating that PD trait as beneficial and impairing, so explanations for the positive relation between PD trait levels and PD trait attitudes are needed. We tested 2 explanations using a sample including adults (N = 457) who self-reported PD trait levels as well as PD trait benefit, impairment, and attitudes. The maximization hypothesis, which argues that higher PD trait levels correspond more strongly to trait-corresponding benefit than impairment, received some support. The weighting hypothesis, which argues that people disproportionately weigh PD trait benefits over impairments upon generating attitudes of a PD trait, received general support. Mediation analyses indicated that for each PD trait domain, the indirect effect of PD trait levels on trait-corresponding attitudes was stronger via trait-corresponding benefit compared with impairment. We also obtained evidence that relations between PD trait levels and trait-corresponding attitudes or benefit ratings, but not impairment ratings, were enhanced as perceived control over that trait's expressions increased. Findings help illuminate some of the mystery surrounding PD trait evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Profiles and profile comparisons between Dark Triad constructs on self-presentation tactic usage and tactic beliefs.

OBJECTIVE: The present research profiled antisocial personality constructs in relation to tactical self-presentation behaviors and various beliefs associated with such tactical behavior. METHOD: An MTurk sample (N = 524; Mage  = 37.89; 61% female) completed indices of the Dark Triad (DT; narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) and self-reported their use of various self-presentation tactics, their beliefs about the subjective logic for executing the tactics (which encompassed ratings of the tactics' utility, ease of execution, and normativity), and the potential for each tactic to arouse self-recrimination. RESULTS: Results revealed high convergence between the DT constructs on a relatively malignant approach to self-presentation. DT constructs related to enhanced usage, enhanced subjective logic, and reduced self-recrimination ratings for all the tactics, except pro-social ones (exemplification and apologizing). Nonetheless, results also revealed some notable anticipated instances of nonconvergences between the DT constructs and tactic usage. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight that DT constructs function rather similarly at the level of self-presentation and suggest value in considering the DT constructs as indicative of strategic, subjectively logical image cultivation and defense behavior.

Trait interpersonal vulnerability attenuates beneficial effects of constructive criticism on failure responses.

The extant literature on interpersonal criticism suggests that relative to destructive criticism, constructive criticism significantly minimizes the injurious psychological aftermath people experience after failure. However, we propose the possibility that for some people, these psychological benefits of constructive criticism are less apparent. Specifically, we hypothesized that for people high in trait interpersonal vulnerability, a construct marked by maladaptive cognitive-emotional responses in interpersonal contexts and/or by dysfunctional relational concerns, effects of constructive (vs. destructive) criticism on reduced maladaptive appraisals will diminish, and this diminution of reduced maladaptive appraisals will predict downstream effects on worsened post-failure mood. An experiment had a college sample (N = 349) complete four instruments represented under an interpersonal vulnerability construct (IVC). Next, participants imagined failing in various domains and receiving subsequent feedback from emotionally important others. Feedback type was manipulated to typify either destructive criticism or constructive criticism. Finally, participants provided ratings of maladaptive appraisals and post-failure mood. Latent variable path modelling supported hypotheses. Effects of constructive (vs. destructive) criticism on reduced maladaptive appraisals (namely, shame proneness) diminished as IVC increased, which predicted worsened post-failure mood. Findings have implications for multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives relevant to interpersonal vulnerability and offer practical considerations for clinicians working with vulnerable clients.