Background: Narcissism is a personality trait associated with both psychological health and resilience as well as with aggression and interpersonal problems.
Aim: This study compares levels of total narcissism and subscale scores in inpatients, outpatients and a community sample.
Methods: Inpatients (N = 186) were recruited from consecutively admitted patients to two closed units, and the outpatient group (N = 144) consisted of patients attending a psychiatric outpatient clinic. The patients and a normative community sample (N = 437) all filled in the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire (NPI-29).
Results: The NPI total and subscales scores showed considerable gender differences. Among men only the Uniqueness/Entitlement subscale showed significant group differences, with inpatients showing higher mean score than the two other groups. Among women three factors, Leadership/Power, Superiority/Arrogance, and Uniqueness/ Entitlement, showed significant differences between the different levels of psychopathology. The outpatient female group regularly had the lowest group mean scores. The NPI-29 scores of the normative group showed weak internal consistencies.
Conclusion: Our hypothesis of a significant association between mean levels of total narcissism and subscale scores and severity of psychopathology was not supported.
Keywords: Community sample; Inpatients; Narcissism; Outpatients; Psychopathology; Self-report.