Narcissistic Personality Disorder through psycholinguistic analysis and neuroscientific correlates.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Elleuch D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11299496 | biostudies-literature | 2024
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Narcissistic Personality Disorder through psycholinguistic analysis and neuroscientific correlates.
Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 20240717
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Project description:BackgroundOne of the relevant case formulation methods for personality difficulties is plan analysis. The present study aimed at delivering a prototypical plan analysis for clients presenting with a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). The sample consisted of 14 participants diagnosed with an NPD. Based on audio clinical material, we developed 14 individual plan analyses that we then merged into a single prototypical plan analysis. For explorative purposes, we ran an ordinary least squares regression model to predict the narcissistic symptoms severity (NAR) measured on a scale of 1-7 of the 14 clients by the presence (respectively absence) of certain plans in their individual plan analysis. The synthesis revealed that clients with pathological narcissism share common basic motives. Results of the regression model reveal that the presence of the plan 'be strong' reduces the NAR scale by 1.52 points (p = 0.011).DiscussionIn the treatment of psychological disorders, precise case formulations allow therapists for making clinically appropriate decision, personalizing the intervention and gaining insight into the client's subjective experience. In the prototypical plan structure we developed for NPD, clients strive to strengthen their self-esteem and avoid loss of control, criticism and confrontation as well as to get support, understanding and solidarity. When beginning psychotherapy with a client presenting with NPD, the therapist can use these plans as valuable information to help writing tailored, and therefore more efficient, case formulations for their patients presenting with an NPD.
| S-EPMC9285548 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We investigated the latent structure of narcissistic personality disorder by comparing dimensional, hybrid, and categorical latent variable models, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), nonparametric and semiparametric factor analysis, and latent class analysis, respectively. We first explored these models in a clinical sample and then preregistered replication analyses in 4 additional data sets (with national, undergraduate, community, and mixed community/clinical samples) to test whether the best-fitting model would generalize across different data sets with different sample compositions. A 1-factor CFA outperformed categorical models in fit and reliability, suggesting the criteria do not serve to distinguish a narcissist class or subtypes; rather, a narcissistic dimension underlies the narcissistic personality disorder construct. The CFA also outperformed hybrid models, indicating that people fall within the same continuous distribution, rather than composing homogenous groups of relative severity (nonparametric factor analysis) or pulling apart into mixtures of discrete distributions (semiparametric factor analysis) along that spectrum. (PsycINFO Database Record
| S-EPMC6051431 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundGrandiose narcissism has been associated with poor ability to understand one's own mental states and the mental states of others. In particular, two manifestations of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) can be explained by poor mindreading abilities: absence of symptomatic subjective distress and lack of empathy.MethodsWe conducted two studies to investigate the relationships between mindreading capacity, symptomatic subjective distress and narcissistic personality. In the first study (N = 246), we compared mindreading capacities and symptomatic distress in three outpatient samples: narcissistic patients (NPD); patients with other Personality Disorders (PD); patients without PD. In the second study (N = 1357), we explored the relationships between symptomatic distress, mindreading and specific NPD criteria.ResultsIn the first study, the NPD patients showed poorer mindreading than the patients without PD and comparable to patients with other PDs. Symptomatic subjective distress in the narcissistic group was less severe than in the other PDs group and comparable to the group without PDs. However, no relationship emerged between mindreading and symptomatic subjective distress. In the second study, taking the clinical sample as a whole, symptomatic distress appeared negatively linked to grandiosity traits, while mindreading scores were negatively linked to empathy.ConclusionsNPD showed specific mindreading impairments. However, mindreading capacity did not appear to be directly connected with subjective distress, but did appear to be connected with specific aspects of narcissistic pathology.
| S-EPMC6093639 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Several psychiatric conditions (e.g., substance use, mood, and personality disorders) are characterized, in part, by greater delay discounting (DD)-a decision-making bias in the direction of preferring smaller, more immediate over larger, delayed rewards. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is highly comorbid with substance use, mood, and other personality disorders, suggesting that DD may be a process underpinning risk for NPD as well. This meta-analysis examined associations between DD and theoretically distinct, clinically relevant dimensions of narcissism (i.e., grandiosity, entitlement, and vulnerability). Literature searches were conducted and articles were included if they were written in English, published in a peer-reviewed journal, contained measures of DD and narcissism and reported their association, and used an adult sample. Narcissism measures had to be systematically categorized according to clinically relevant dimensions (Grijalva et al., 2015; Wright & Edershile, 2018). Seven studies met inclusion criteria (N = 2,705). DD was positively associated with narcissism (r = .21; 95% confidence interval [.10, .32]), with this association being largely attributable to measures of trait grandiosity that were used in each study (r = .24; 95% confidence interval [.11, .37]). No studies included diagnostic NPD assessments. These findings provide empirical evidence that DD is related to trait narcissism and perhaps risk for NPD (e.g., grandiosity listed in Criterion B of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, alternative model of personality disorders). Considering the positive evidence from this review, and the dearth of research examining DD in individuals with NPD, investigators studying NPD may consider incorporating DD measures in future studies to potentially inform clinical theory and novel adjunctive treatment options. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC9064993 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) has greatly facilitated the scientific study of trait narcissism. However, there is great variability in the reported reliability of scores on the NPI. This study meta-analyzes coefficient alpha for scores on the NPI and its sub-scales (e.g. entitlement) with transformed alphas weighted by the inverse of the variance of alpha. Three coders evaluated 1213 individual studies for possible inclusion and determined that 1122 independent samples were suitable for coding on 12 different characteristics of the sample, scale, and study. A fourth author cross-coded 15 percent of these samples resulting in 85 percent overall agreement. In the independent samples, comprised of 195,038 self-reports, the expected population coefficient alpha for the NPI was .82. The population value for alpha on the various sub-scales ranged from .48 for narcissistic self-sufficiency to .76 for narcissistic leadership/authority. Because significant heterogeneity existed in coded study alphas for the overall NPI, moderator tests and an explanatory model were also conducted and reported. It was found that longer scales, the use of a Likert response scale as opposed to the original forced choice response format, higher mean scores and larger standard deviations on the scale, as well as the use of samples with a larger percentage of female respondents were all positively related to the expected population alpha for scores on the overall NPI. These results will likely aid researchers who are concerned with the reliability of scores on the NPI in their research on non-clinical subjects.
| S-EPMC6279043 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) entails severe impairments in interpersonal functioning that are likely driven by self-beneficial and exploitative behavior. Here, we investigate the underlying motivational and neural mechanisms of prosocial decision-making by experimentally manipulating motivational conflict between self-beneficial and prosocial incentives. One group of patients diagnosed with NPD and a group of healthy controls (CTL) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a prosocial decision-making task. In this task, we systematically varied the level of conflict between self-beneficial and prosocial options on each trial. We analyzed choice behavior, response times, and neural activity in regions associated with conflict monitoring to test how motivational conflict drives prosocial choice behavior. Participants in the NPD group behaved less prosocially than the CTL group overall. Varying degrees of motivational conflict between self-beneficial and prosocial options induced response variability in both groups, but more so in the CTL group. The NPD group responded faster than the CTL group, unless choosing prosocially, which slowed response times to a level comparable to the CTL group. Additionally, neural activity tracking motivational conflict in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was reduced in the NPD group. Collectively, low generosity in NPD appears to arise from reduced consideration of prosocial motives, which obviates motivational conflict with self-beneficial motives and entails reduced activity in neural conflict monitoring systems. Yet, our data also indicate that NPD is not marked by an absolute indifference to others' needs. This points to potentials for improving interpersonal relationships, effectively supporting the well-being of patients and their peers.
| S-EPMC8405953 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The limited published literature on the subject suggests that there may be differences in how females and males experience narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) symptoms. The aim of this study was to use methods based on item response theory to examine whether, when equating for levels of NPD symptom severity, there are sex differences in the likelihood of reporting DSM-IV-TR NPD symptoms. We conducted these analyses using a large, nationally representative sample from the USA (n=34,653), the second wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). There were statistically and clinically significant sex differences for 2 out of the 9 DSM-IV-TR NPD symptoms. We found that males were more likely to endorse the item 'lack of empathy' at lower levels of narcissistic personality disorder severity than females. The item 'being envious' was a better indicator of NPD severity in males than in females. There were no clinically significant sex differences on the remaining NPD symptoms. Overall, our findings indicate substantial sex differences in narcissistic personality disorder symptom expression. Although our results may reflect sex-bias in diagnostic criteria, they are consistent with recent views suggesting that narcissistic personality disorder may be underpinned by shared and sex-specific mechanisms.
| S-EPMC6002876 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Humans engage in social interactions and have a fundamental need and motivation to establish and maintain social connections. Neuroimaging studies particularly focused on the neural substrates of social exclusion in healthy subjects (HC), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and major depression (MD). However, there is evidence regarding neural alterations also during social inclusion in BPD that we intended to elucidate in our study. Considering that patients with BPD often have comorbid MD, we investigated patients with BPD, and comorbid MD, patients with MD without BPD, and a sample of HC. By investigating these two clinical samples within one study design, we attempted to disentangle potential confounds arising by psychiatric disorder or medication and to relate neural alterations under social inclusion specifically to BPD. We investigated 48 females (15 BPD and MD, 16 MD, and 17 HC) aged between 18 and 40 years by fMRI (3T), using the established cyberball paradigm with social exclusion, inclusion, and passive watching conditions. Significant group-by-condition interaction effects (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected on cluster level) were observed within the dorsolateral (dlPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the precuneus. Comparisons of estimated neural activations revealed that significant interaction effects were related to a relative increase in neural activations during social inclusion in BPD. In detail, we observed a significant increase in differential (social inclusion vs. passive watching) neural activation within the dmPFC and the PCC in BPD compared to both, MD and HC. However, significant interaction effects within the dlPFC and the TPJ could not specifically be linked to BPD considering that they did not differ significantly between the two clinical groups in post-hoc comparisons. Our study supports previous results on effects of social and inclusion in BPD, and provides further evidence regarding disorder specific neural alterations in BPD for brain regions associated with self-referential and mentalizing processes during social inclusion.
| S-EPMC6287007 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have severe problems in social interactions that might be caused by deficits in social cognition. Since the findings about social-cognitive abilities in BPD are inhomogeneous, ranging from deficits to superior abilities, we aimed to investigate the neuronal basis of social cognition in BPD. We applied a paradigm with three social cognition tasks, differing in their complexity: basal processing of faces with a neutral expression, recognition of emotions, and attribution of emotional intentions (affective ToM). A total of 13 patients with BPD and 13 healthy matched controls (HCs) were included in a functional magnet resonance imaging study. BPD patients showed no deficits in social cognition on the behavioral level. However, while HCs showed increasing activation in areas of the mirror neuron system with increasing complexity in the social-cognitive task, BPD patients had hypoactivation in these areas and hyperactivation in the amygdala which were not modulated by task complexity. This activation pattern seems to reflect an enhanced emotional approach in the processing of social stimuli in BPD that allows good performance in standardized social-cognitive tasks, but might be the basis of social-cognitive deficits in real-life social interactions.
| S-EPMC3682436 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesThe aim of this work is to explore the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) using network analysis in a dataset of 942 university students from the French-speaking part of Belgium.MethodsWe estimated an Ising Model for the forty items in the questionnaire and explored item interconnectedness with strength centrality. We provide in the supplementary materials the dataset used for the analyses as well as the full code to ensure the reproducibility of our results.ResultsThe NPI is presented as an overall positively connected network with items from entitlement, authority and superiority reporting the highest centrality estimates.ConclusionsNetwork analysis highlights new properties of items from the NPI. Future studies should endeavor to replicate our findings in other samples, both clinical and non-clinical.
| S-EPMC7051847 | biostudies-literature