Narcissism and perceived power in romantic relationships

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to examine the connections that narcissistic admiration (an agentic form of narcissism characterized by assertive self-enhancement and self-promotion) and narcissistic rivalry (an antagonistic form of narcissism characterized by self-protection and self-defense) had with perceived power in the context of romantic relationships. The results of Study 1 ( N = 375) revealed that narcissistic admiration had a positive association with perceived power, whereas narcissistic rivalry was not associated with perceived power. In Study 2 ( N = 352), we extended the findings from Study 1 by examining whether perceived power moderated the associations that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had with romantic relationship functioning. The results revealed that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had unique and divergent associations with romantic relationship functioning. Further, the results showed that perceived power moderated the association that narcissistic rivalry had with romantic relationship functioning. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the connection between narcissism and perceived power in romantic relationships.