This article was downloaded by: [University of New Hampshire]

On: 09 February 2015, At: 09:52

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Personality Assessment

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription
information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hjpa20

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory:

Alternative Form Reliability and Further
Evidence of Construct Validity
Robert Raskin & Calvin S. Hall
Published online: 10 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Robert Raskin & Calvin S. Hall (1981) The Narcissistic Personality Inventory:
Alternative Form Reliability and Further Evidence of Construct Validity, Journal of Personality
Assessment, 45:2, 159-162, DOI: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4502_10

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4502_10

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our
agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the
accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and
views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not
the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be
relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor
and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs,
expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial
or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply,
or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access
and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
 Journal of Personality Assessment, 1981, 45, 2

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory: Alternate Form

Reliability and Further Evidence sf Construct Validity
ROBERT RASKIN and CALVIN S. HALL
University of California at Santa Cruz
Abstract: The aim of this study was twofold: (a)to measure the alternate form reliability of the
Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and (b)to determine its constiruct validity by correlating it
with the four scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). The alternate form reli-
abil~tywas .72. The Extraversion and Psychoticism scales af the EPQ were positively and signifi-
cantly corirelated with the narcissism measure, and the Lie scale sho'wed a significant negative cor-
relation. The Neuroticism scale showed a nonsignificant relationship with narcissism. In addi-
tion, the combined Extraversion and Psychoticism scales producedl a Multiple R with the narcis-
sism measure that accounted for significantly more of the variance in narcissism than did either
measure alone.
An inventory to measure individual We are now engaged in a series of
Downloaded by [University of New Hampshire] at 09:52 09 February 2015

differences in narcissism has been de- studies whose aim is to establish the
veloped by us (Raskin & Hall, 1979). construct and empirical validity of the
The motive that prompted the construc- Narcissistic Personality Inventory
tion of the inventory was the inclusion (NPI). In the first study (Raskin, 1980)
by the American Psychiatric Associa- it was hypothesized, on the basis of a
tion (1980)l in its new diagnostic manual survey of the creativity literature, that
DSM-I11 of a list of criterion behaviors some of the characteristics associated
defining the Narcissistic Personality with creative individuals, such as self-
Disorder. A summary of these criteria absorption, impulsivity, autonomy,
is presented in Table 1. exploitativeness, lack of empathy, and
On the assumption that abnormality a strong need for recognition, were also
is continuous with normality, behaviors to some degree characteristic of the nar-
descriptive of the Narcissistic Personal- cissistic personality as defined by the
ity Disorder are considered to be ex- American Psychiatric Association's
treme forms which are manifested to a criteria. We tested this hypothesis by
lesser extent in normal individuals. correlating the narcissism measure with
Table 1
Diagnostic Criteria for the Narcissistic Personiality Disorder
A. Grandiose sense of self-importance or uniqueness.
B. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love.
C. Exhibitionism.
D. Cool indifference or marked feelings of rage, inferiority, shame, humiliation, or emptiness in
response to criticism, indifference of others, or defeat.
E. At least two of the following characteristic disturbances in interpersonal relationships:
(1) entitlement: expectation of special favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities
(2) interpersonal exploitiveness
(3) relationships that characteristically alternate between the two extremes of overidealiza-
tion and devaluation
(4) lack of empathy.
Abbreviated from DSM-111, p. 317 (American Psychiatric Associat~lon,1980).
Thanks are extended to Professors Frank X. Barron,
David Harrington, and Donald Saposnek the Univer- two types of creativity measures, one
sity of California at Santa Cruz for their assistance in
conducting this study.
the Barron Slymbolic Equivalents Test
Copies of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory will (Barren, 1974)5 and the other a
be sent without charge for purposes of research. report measure in which the subjects
 160
simply stated whether or not they
thought of themselves as being highly
creative. We found both measures to
be significantly and positively correlat-
ed to the narcissism measure.
In the present investigation of the
construct validity of the NPI we were
also able to determine its reliability us-
ing the method of alternate forms. In a
previous study (Raskin & Hall, 1979),
the split-half reliability was found to be
.80. McNemar (1955) states that the
method of determining reliability by
administering alternate and equivalent
forms several weeks apart is the pre-
ferred method. To equate the two forms
of the narcissism measure the items were
Downloaded by [University of New Hampshire] at 09:52 09 February 2015
matched according to the behavioral
criteria from which they were derived,
and on their Z scores for differentiating
between the high and low scorers of a
sample that had been previously ad-
ministered the total item pool.
In order to obtain further evidence
of the construct validity of the NPI we
correlated the narcissism measure with
the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
(EPQ) which consists of four scales,
Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoti-
cism, and a Lie scale. The reasons for
choosing the Eysenck measure include
the following:
1. The scales of the Eysenck ques-
tionnaire have been used extensively
and considerable evidence of their valid-
ity has been obtained. Moreover, the
scales correlate with a variety of behav-
ioral and physiological measures (Ey-
senck, 1967).
2. In reviewing the characteristic be-
haviors that Eysenck claims for his in-
ventory measures, there appear to be
some behavioral characteristics which
are similar to the criteria on which we
based our narcissism measure. For in-
stance, Eysenck and Eysenck (1968) de-
scribe the typical extravert as outgoing,
impulsive, uninhibited, aggressive,
quick to anger, takes chances, not al-
ways reliable, and has many social con-
tacts. These characteristic behaviors
would appear to share common ground
with some of the criteria of the narcis-
sism measure such as exhibitionism and
The Narcissistic Personality Inventory
grandiosity. Additionally, someone
who is quick to anger is all too often an
individual who tends to respond nega-
tively to criticism, and at least some
part of irresponsibility can be conceived
of as being associated with entitlement
or the expectation of special favors
without assuming reciprocal responsi-
bilities. As a result of these apparent
associations between extraversion and
the criteria behaviors of narcissism, we
would expect to find a significant and
positive correlation between the Ey-
senck Extraversion scale and the NPI.
However, we would expect to find a
medium-sized correlation, somewhere
around .20 to .40 as the narcissism
scale measures behaviors in addition
to those described by the Extraversion
scale, and vice versa.
Psychoticism, another Eysenck scale,
also appears to share some common
behaviors with narcissism. Eysenck and
Eysenck (1975) describe the ty ical in-
dividual scoring high on Psyc( oticism
as solitary, not caring for people, lack-
ing in empathy, hostile, and having a
disregard for danger. These behaviors
would appear to have some association
with such extreme narcissistic behaviors
as grandiose sense of self-importance
or uniqueness, preoccupation with fan-
tasies of unlimited power, success, bril-
liance, etc., lack of empathy, interper-
sonal exploitativeness, and entitlement.
As a result of these apparent associa-
tions, we would again expect a positive
correlation of medium size between the
narcissism inventory and the Eysenck
Psychoticism scale.
Perhaps of even more interest is the
portrait that emerges when the char-
acteristics of extraversion and psychoti-
cism are combined. The portrait is one
of an individual who is exhibitionistic
with many social contacts, yet at the
same time is primarily solitary, self-
concerned and absorbed, and lacking
in empathy. The above characteristics
suggest a reasonable basis to expect in-
terpersonal behaviors exhibited by such
a person to be centered on being exploit-
ative, aimed at self-aggrandizement,
coming from a position of entitlement,
 R. RASKIN and C. S. HALL
and to be highly vacillating in the sense
that such an individual would have
many short-term relationships and few
long-term relationships. This analysis
would suggest that taken together Ex-
traversion and Psychoticism would be
associated with more behavioral char-
acteristics of narcissism than would
either variable taken alone. As a re-
sult, we would expect Extraversion and
Psychoticism to produce a multiple R
when correlated with narcissism, that
is higher than the correlation coeffi-
cients of each of these variables asso-
ciated individually with narcissism.
No predictions were made of the cor-
relations to be expected between Neu-
Downloaded by [University of New Hampshire] at 09:52 09 February 2015
roticism and narcissism and the Lie
scale and narcissism.
Method
Subjects
The subject pool consisted of 164
undergraduate students in a develop-
mental psychology class who agreed to
participate in this study. There were
110 females and 54 males, ranging in
age from 16 years to 41 years, with a
mean age of 23.
Procedure
Form A of the NPI was administered
to 134 subjects. Eight weeks later Form
B of the NIP1 and the EPA were admin-
istered to 99,69 of whom had previously
taken Form A of the narcissism mea-
sure. Forms A and B each consisted of
40 items. The sex and ages of the sub-
jects in each test administration was in
a similar proportion to the sex and ages
of the subjects in the total subject pool.
Results
1. The zero order Pearson correla-
tion between Forms A and B of the NPI
was +.72. This correlation is based on
an N of 69.
2. As predicted, Extraversion and
Psychoticism were significantly and
positively correlated with the NPI. Both
rs were +.23 ( p < .05). The correlation
between narcissism and Neuroticism
was not significantly different from
zero, while the correlation between nar-
cissism and the Lie scale was r = -.26,
161
p < .05.
The multiple R between narcissism
as the dependent variable and Extra-
version and Psychoticism as the: inde-
pendent variables was R = +.30,p< .05,
which is larger than the zero order cor-
relations betwleen Extraversion and nar-
cissism and between Psychoticism and
narcissism. Mloreover, both Extraver-
sion and Psychoticism made significant
@ < .05) unique contributions to the
multiple R.
Neither the age nor sex of th~esub-
jects correlated significantly with nar-
cissism.
Discussion
A reliability coefficient of .72 be-
tween alternate forms of the NPI ad-
ministered eight weeks apart suggests
that the trait or response tendency we
are measuring is a reasonably stable
one. Further studies of the same indi-
viduals tested1 at longer intervals will
indicate whether narcissism undergoes
developmental changes.
The second aim of this study, namely
to secure additional evidence for the
construct validity of the NPI, was also
encouraging. As predicted, the NPI cor-
related modestly but significantlly with
the Eysenck Extraversion and Psychot-
icism scales. As was also predicted,
when Extrav~ersion and Psychoticism
were combined as a set of predictor vari-
ables they accounted for more of the
variance in narcissism than did either
of these measures alone.
We made no predictions as to the di-
rection or magnitude of the correlations
between Neuroticism and nar~cissism
or the Lie scale and narcissism. An after-
the-fact explanation of the significant
negative correlation of --.26 between
narcissism and the Lie scale m~lghtbe
as follows. Eysenck and Eysenck (1975)
have speculated that the personality
trait underlying the Lie scale score is
social naivett. It appears to us that the
narcissist, who has a tendency to be
exploitative in his/ her social relation-
ships, would not be socially naive, and
would cwsequently score low on the
Lie scale. Thils explanation deserves to

be investigated empirically.
The fact that there was no significant
relationship between sex and narcissism
was not totally unexpected because we
had not found sex differences in pre-
vious studies.
The failure to find a correlation be-
tween age and narcissism may be due
to the rather restricted range of ages in
our sample. We intend to investigate
this question using subjects with a
broader range of ages.
Finally, it was thought that a further
understanding of narcissism would be
gained if a multiple regression analysis
was made using the narcissism measure
as the dependent variable and the age
Downloaded by [University of New Hampshire] at 09:52 09 February 2015
and sex of the subjects and the four Ey-
senck scales as the predictor variables.
These variables taken together ac-
counted for a significant 0, < .05) 21%
of the variance in narcissism. However,
of more interest was that the Psychoti-
cism scale did not make a significant
individual contribution to this variance.
As the zero order correlation between
narcissism and Psychoticism was found
to be significant, it is curious that the
information about this relationship was
lost when viewed in the context of the
other predictor variables. In order to
understand why this information was
lost, we performed a further analysis,
one suggested by Cohen and Cohen
(1975), aimed at identifying any condi-
tions of suppression or redundancy that
might exist among the independent
variables. As a result of this analysis
it was found that the relationship of
Psychoticism and narcissism was redun-
dant with the relationship of the Lie
scale and narcissism. If we accept the
Eysenck inte~pretationthat the Lie scale
is a measure of social naivett': and if we
accept the Eysenck descripti~nof the
high scorer on the Psychoticism scale
The Narcissistic Personality Inventory
as being socially exploitative, which can
be interpreted as the antithesis of social
naivetk, then the source of redundancy
is apparent. In other words, we are sug-
gesting that the lack of social naivetk
expresses itself in social exploitative-
ness. A negative correlation of -.44
p < .001) between the Psychoticism and
Lie scales would appear to support this
inference. What this all means is that
the characteristic of interpersonal ex-
ploitativeness or social manipulation
may be a particularly salient variable
in narcissism, and that it deserves fur-
ther study.
References
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic
and statistical manual of mental disorders:
DSM-III. Washington, D.C.: American Psy-
chiatric Association, 1980.
Barron, F. X. Basic research and aesthetic edu-
cation. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Office of Edu-
cation, 1974.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. Applied multiple regres-
sion/ correlation analyszs for the behavzoral
sciences. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum,
1975.
Eysenck, H. J. The biological basis ofpersonality.
Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1967.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. Manualfor the
Eysenck Personality Inventory. San Diego,
Ca.: EDITS, 1968.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. Manual for the
Eysenck Personality Questzonnaire.San Diego,
Ca.: EDITS, 1975.
McNemar, Q. Psychological statistics. (2nd ed.),
New York: Wiley, 1955.
Raskin, R. N. Narcissism and creativity: Are they
related? Psychological Reports, 1980,46,55-60.
Raskin, R. N., & Hall, C. S. A narcissitic per-
sonality inventory. Psychological Reports,
1979, 45, 590.
Robert Raskin
Department of Psychology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720
Received: January 27, 1980
Revised: April 2, 1980