A Trifurcated Model of Narcissism: On the pivotal role of trait Antagonism

In the present chapter, we answer two questions concerning Antagonism in the context of narcissism: (a) Is Antagonism the core trait of narcissism? and (b) Is the Antagonism of Grandiose narcissism the same as the Antagonism of Vulnerable narcissism? To quantify the role that Antagonism plays in narcissism, we compare its empirical correlates to those generated by factors across narcissism's three levels of organization (i.e., single factor; Grandiose and Vulnerable; Agentic Extraversion, Antagonism, and Neuroticism) using intraclass correlations (ICCs) that assess absolute similarity between correlate profiles. To assess divergences in the content of Antagonism across Grandiose and Vulnerable narcissism, we examine how levels of specific antagonistic traits vary across narcissism constructs at different levels of organization (i.e., NPD, Grandiose narcissism, Vulnerable narcissism, trifurcated factors).