Critique of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) in terms of its reliability, validity and other psychometric issues

Résumé ou Introduction

This word is a critique of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) in terms of its reliability, validity and other psychometric issues. The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is a test that was developed by Raskin and Hall (1979) in order to measure the personality trait of narcissism for research in social psychology. It is the most commonly used test to measure Narcissism, in fact, it is used in over 75% of studies on Narcissism and is based on the definition found in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Research suggests that there are two variants of Narcissism: Grandiose narcissism which is characterized by arrogance, over-inflation of one’s qualities such as talent or intelligence, sense of entitlement, as well as the tendency to denigrate others in order to boost their own self-esteem. Vulnerable Narcissism on the other hand, is characterized by self-inhibition, and the desire for approval by others and emotional instability, but vulnerable narcissists still have unrealistically high expectations of themselves, such as the attainment of unlimited power and money and personal features such as beauty.

The NPI was not meant to be used for diagnostic purposes, that is, for the clinical diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is a mental illness characterized by an extremely fragile sense of self and significant life impairments. This disorder is generally assessed by using other tests such as the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI). The NPI is intended to measure the normal (sub-clinical) levels of narcissism that can be commonly found among the general population. This means that even if an individual obtains a high score on the NPI, it may not mean that they have Narcissistic Personality Disorder per se.