Narcissistic Traits and Executive Functions.

Igor Nenadić

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.707887

Abstract

Several personality disorders have been associated with cognitive impairment, including executive functions like working memory. Yet, it is unclear whether subclinical expression in non-clinical persons is associated with cognitive functioning. Recent studies indicate that non-clinical subjects might, in fact, perform better with increasing moderate to mild expressions of narcissistic features. We tested working memory performance in a cohort of n=70 psychiatrically and neurologically healthy subjects using Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS/WIE) subtests Arithmetic, Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing, and assessed narcissistic features using three different inventories: the widely used Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), as well as two clinically used measures of narcissistic traits and states, respectively, derived from schema-focused therapy, i.e., the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) entitlement/grandiosity subscale and the Schema Mode Inventory (SMI) self-aggrandizer subscale. In accordance with our hypothesis, we found nominally significant positive correlations of WIE Arithmetic performance with NPI total score (Spearman’s rho=0.208; p=0.043) and SMI self-aggrandizer scale (Spearman’s rho=0.231; p=0.027), but findings did not survive false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment for multiple comparisons (pFDR=0.189 and pFDR=0.243, respectively). While our findings add to recent studies on cognitive performance in subclinical narcissism, they fail to demonstrate an association of cognitive performance with narcissistic traits across multiple working memory tests, indicating the need for additional study, including complementary executive functions in larger cohorts and ranges of phenotype expression.

Highlights

Personality disorders have increasingly been associated with impairments in cognitive performance, including executive functions like working memory, inhibition, flexibility or decision-making (Garcia-Villamisar et al, 2017)
While studies in patients with Narcissistic personality disorders (NaPD) are still scarce, there are some recent findings on narcissistic personality traits, which can be used to conceptualise a spectrum or continuum ranging from subclinical expressions of the narcissism phenotype to manifest NaPD (Blais and Little, 2010; Miller and Campbell, 2010; Wright et al, 2013)
In our exploratory analyses of other cognitive measures, we observed correlations of Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) total score and Schema Mode Inventory (SMI) self-aggrandized scales with WIE matrix reasoning (Spearman’s rho =0.202; p = 0.047; and Spearman’s rho =0.260; p = 0.015, respectively), as well as the SMI self-aggrandized scale with the WIE information test (Spearman’s rho =0.289; p = 0.008; for full overview, see Table 2), but none of these findings remained significant after false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment for multiple comparisons

Summary

Introduction

Personality disorders have increasingly been associated with impairments in cognitive performance, including executive functions like working memory, inhibition, flexibility or decision-making (Garcia-Villamisar et al, 2017). This is the case for cluster A personality disorders like schizotypal personality disorder (Siddi et al, 2017), which have typically been studied as minor expressions of psychosis-like disorders, or related personality traits like schizotypy, often used as a marker of psychosis proneness (Ettinger et al, 2015). While studies in patients with NaPD are still scarce, there are some recent findings on narcissistic personality traits, which can be used to conceptualise a spectrum or continuum ranging from subclinical expressions of the narcissism phenotype to manifest NaPD (Blais and Little, 2010; Miller and Campbell, 2010; Wright et al, 2013)

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Conclusion