Borráz-León Javier I, Spreitzer Alena, Scrivner Coltan, Landers Mitchell, Lee Royce, Maestripieri Dario
Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 6;13:1067456. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1067456. eCollection 2022.
Narcissistic personality manifests itself in at least two different forms: grandiose and vulnerable. In the present study, we compared cortisol and emotional responses to psychosocial stress between subjects high in vulnerable and grandiose narcissism scores, and examined possible associations between narcissism, other personality traits, and stress responses. We hypothesized that subjects with higher scores of vulnerable narcissism would show stronger emotional and physiological reactivity than those with high scores of grandiose narcissism.
A final sample of forty-seven participants underwent a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), provided saliva samples to assess cortisol levels, and completed several personality questionnaires.
Consistent with our hypothesis, subjects with higher scores of vulnerable narcissism had a stronger cortisol and emotional response than those with high scores of grandiose narcissism. Vulnerable narcissism was positively correlated with schizotypal traits, while grandiose narcissism was positively correlated with psychopathic traits. Participants with a mixed-type of narcissism were also discussed.
This study provides the first evidence of differential physiological and emotional reactivity to social evaluation threat according to scores of vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. Since this is an exploratory study, the results must be interpreted with caution. However, the results will be informative for future confirmatory research with larger and more heterogeneous samples.
自恋型人格至少以两种不同形式表现出来：浮夸型和脆弱型。在本研究中，我们比较了脆弱型和浮夸型自恋得分高的受试者对心理社会压力的皮质醇和情绪反应，并研究了自恋、其他人格特质与压力反应之间可能存在的关联。我们假设，脆弱型自恋得分较高的受试者比浮夸型自恋得分较高的受试者表现出更强的情绪和生理反应性。
最终样本中的47名参与者接受了特里尔社会压力测试（TSST），提供唾液样本以评估皮质醇水平，并完成了几份人格问卷。
与我们的假设一致，脆弱型自恋得分较高的受试者比浮夸型自恋得分较高的受试者具有更强的皮质醇和情绪反应。脆弱型自恋与分裂型特质呈正相关，而浮夸型自恋与精神病态特质呈正相关。还讨论了具有混合型自恋的参与者。
本研究首次证明了根据脆弱型和浮夸型自恋得分对社会评价威胁存在不同的生理和情绪反应性。由于这是一项探索性研究，结果必须谨慎解释。然而，这些结果将为未来使用更大且更具异质性样本的验证性研究提供信息。
