Narcissistic personality inventory and hypersensitive narcissism scale : are they appropriate for cross-cultural studies?

• Main Author: Low, Jennifer Shu Fong.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44825
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The main objective of this research was to investigate whether there is instrument inequivalence and item bias in Narcissistic Personality Inventory and Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale and see if these two scales are suitable as measurements across cultures. 100 second generation Asian American and 100 European American undergraduate students recruited from introductory courses in chemistry, sociology and economics were given class time to complete a survey. Hierarchical regression analyses showed significant main effects for ethnicity in predicting vulnerable narcissism and grandiose narcissism. Asian Americans reported both higher grandiose and vulnerable narcissism scores than European Americans. Further investigation of the specific items in the two scales showed clear indication of item bias and culture-bound items. The reason for Asian Americans endorsing the items more does not necessarily mean they are more narcissistic but because these items are more relevant to their culture.