Self-Regulation of Negative Feedback in Vulnerable Narcissistic People

Abstract

Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism have been found to be two narcissistic subtypes who share high entitlement and self-esteem dysregulation, but differ in behavioral respects. Regarding the narcissistic response to negative feedback, individuals scoring high on a measure of grandiose narcissism respond with externalized aggression and other-derogation, whereas the literature on vulnerable narcissism is inconsistent. In three online studies (N = 703), we investigated the vulnerable narcissistic response to negative feedback (compared to positive, neutral and no feedback) on an intelligence test and found a consistent pattern of high negative affect and self-focused rumination. In a fourth study in the laboratory (N = 40), we investigated if the self-regulatory strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) would help women scoring high on a measure of vulnerable narcissism to regulate their (internalized) negative affect and impulsive behavioral tendencies after receiving negative feedback on an intelligence test. Participants in the MCII condition showed significantly less negative affect and higher persistency in rerunning the failed intelligence test than participants who continued with self-focused rumination (dwelling control condition). The findings indicate that the vulnerable narcissistic response to negative feedback consists of high negative affect and self-focused rumination and can be buffered by a self-regulatory strategy which fosters adaptive response behavior.