Proneness to Shame and the Narcissistic Personality

Abstract

A sample of 215 undergraduates completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), the original and revised Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory, the Splitting Scale, and the Selfism Scale. Contrary to clinical theory, proneness to shame was generally negatively correlated with narcissism as assessed by the NPI. When statistical procedures were used to isolate presumably maladaptive components of the NPI, the predicted positive association between shame (independent of guilt) and narcissism emerged. Shame-proneness was also positively correlated with splitting, a pathological narcissistic defense. These findings suggest that it is critical to differentiate between pathological and more benign aspects of narcissism.