Narcissism

 Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Narcissists have a prominent place in the popular imagination, and the label

"narcissist" is widely deployed to refer to people who appear too full of
themselves. There's also a growing sense that narcissism is on the rise
around the world, especially among young people, although most
psychological research does not support that notion.

Narcissism is properly viewed on a spectrum. The trait is normally distributed

in the population, with most people scoring near the middle, and a few at
either extreme. The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), developed by
Robert Raskin and Calvin S. Hall in 1979, is the most commonly used
measure of the trait. Scores range from 0 to 40, with the average tending to
fall in the low to mid-teens. Healthy individuals who score somewhat higher
may be perceived as exceedingly charming, especially on the first encounter,
but eventually come across as vain. Such individuals may have awkward
or stressful personal encounters but still have a fundamentally healthy
personality.