Abstract
The current study explores the problem with the lack of measurement invariance for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) by addressing two issues: conceptual heterogeneity of narcissism and methodological issues related to the binary character of data. We examine the measurement invariance of the 13-item version of the NPI in three populations in Japan, Poland and the UK. Analyses revealed that leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism dimensions of the NPI were cross-culturally invariant, while entitlement/exploitativeness was culturally specific. Therefore, we proposed NPI-9 as indicating scalar invariance, and we examined the pattern of correlations between NPI-9 and other variables across three countries. The results suggest that NPI-9 is valid brief scale measuring general levels of narcissism in cross-cultural studies, while the NPI-13 remains suitable for research within specific countries.
Highlights
Despite increasing interest in the cross-cultural studies on narcissism, there are few studies examining the measurement invariance of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)
Measurement invariance is crucial in cross-cultural studies, as it allows for the assessment of the extent to which any cross-cultural comparisons are justified
There are three basic levels of measurement invariance: configural – which answers the question whether the factor structure of scales is similar across compared groups; metric – which answers the question of whether the factor loading of items are similar across groups, allowing the comparison of predictors or correlates of a construct across groups; and scalar – which answers the question of whether item intercepts are equal intercepts across groups
Summary
Despite increasing interest in the cross-cultural studies on narcissism, there are few studies examining the measurement invariance of the NPI (see Cozma et al, 2014 for a review). Cozma et al (2014) in their review on former cross-cultural studies of the NPI did not find any paper reporting higher than configural invariance for the scale. Testing the measurement invariance of the NPI across cultures should include populations from outside of English-speaking countries For this reason, we examine the measurement invariance of the NPI in three different countries: Japan, Poland, and the United Kingdom, and its applicability in cross-cultural studies. We examine the measurement invariance of the NPI in three different countries: Japan, Poland, and the United Kingdom, and its applicability in cross-cultural studies We chose these countries because Poland is a Central-European country with a different cultural background to that of the United Kingdom and Japan is unique in terms of its values, religion and language (Hofstede et al, 2010). Two main sources of lack of measurement invariance are assumed: (1) the heterogeneous nature of grandiose narcissism, as indicated by Ackerman et al (2011); and (2) measurement issues, related to ignoring the binary character of data
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