Do Responsibility Attributions Mediate the Relationship Between Narcissism and Unforgiveness in Intimate Relationships?

Abstract: Three studies explored the influence of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on negative responsibility attributions and unforgiveness following a conflict in an intimate relationship. We tested Morf and Rhodewalt’s (2001a , 2001b ) Dynamic Self-Regulatory Processing Model of Narcissism. In the first two studies, participants were primarily heterosexual college students in a serious dating relationship and both types of narcissism were examined. The first study involved participants’ self-nominated biggest conflict. The second study involved an agreed-upon conflict. The third study attempted a conceptual replication of the actor effects found in the first two studies by testing mediation models with narcissism, negative responsibility attributions, and unforgiveness in a larger, convenience sample of MTurk workers. The first two studies showed gender differences suggesting that responsibility attributions either partially or fully mediated the relationship between grandiose narcissism and unforgiveness in males. The pattern of results for females was different in the first two studies. The third study showed that responsibility attributions partially mediated the relationship between all three forms of narcissism (grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, and entitlement) and unforgiveness in males and females supporting the Dynamic Self-Regulatory Processing Model of Narcissism.