Reciprocal relationships between narcissism and agentic versus communal work activities across the first 6 years of the career.

The vast majority of studies on trait narcissism have adopted a static unidirectional approach, documenting the mainly detrimental effects of this trait on a variety of work outcomes. The present study contributes to this literature by adopting a novel bidirectional perspective, investigating how trait narcissism shapes and is shaped by our experiences at work. Specifically, this study examines how trait narcissism develops during the first 6 years after the transition from college to work, and how agentic versus communal work demands may either enhance or diminish the development of this trait. Reciprocal relationships between narcissism and subjective and objective work activities are examined in a sample of 1,513 college alumni who were assessed four times across a time period of 6 years. Both selection (i.e., narcissism shapes work activities) and socialization effects (i.e., narcissism is shaped by work activities) were examined using bivariate latent change score models. Results showed that trait narcissism prior to the college-to-work transition positively predicted the selection of agentic work activities at the beginning of the career, but not future changes in these activities. Importantly, the results regarding socialization effects indicated that engagement in communal activities, particularly those that require relating with others at work (e.g., to help them), diminished trait narcissism over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Translating trait to state assessment: The case of grandiose narcissism.

Although interest in within-person variability in grandiose narcissism is growing, measurement tools are lacking that allow studying fluctuations in this personality characteristic in a differentiated manner (i.e., distinguishing narcissistic admiration and rivalry). This study explores whether a measurement approach using the six-item version of the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale (NGS Rosenthal et al. (2007)) and six additional newly formulated adjectives allows assessing state admiration and rivalry. Structural characteristics and convergent validity of this approach were examined in an experience sampling study in which 114 adults participated, providing state assessments twice a day (total number of observations = 1306). Multilevel bifactor analyses revealed three factors (i.e., one general and two specific factors) at both within- and between-person levels. Further, admiration and rivalry showed a pattern of within-person associations with fluctuations in self-esteem and Big Five states that were consistent with theoretical expectations. Finally, average state admiration and average state rivalry correlated substantively with trait measures of these respective constructs assessed one week prior to the experience sampling design.