Examining the Construct Validity of the Super Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory to Assess Narcissistic States in Daily Life

Although ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is becoming increasingly popular, the approach has historically relied on unvalidated single-item assessments of constructs. The Super Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory (SB-PNI) assesses narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability using 12 items and is well-suited to address this limitation in the narcissism literature. However, its validity in an EMA context has not been examined. To this end, 88 undergraduates responded to prompts 7 times a day for 10 days to assess state grandiosity and vulnerability in their daily lives. Results suggest that the two-factor structure of the SB-PNI is replicated at the between and within person levels. Although ICCs suggested that 80% of the variability in SB-PNI scales was occurring at the between person level, SB-PNI states were significantly associated with PNI traits, self-enhancing contexts, and psychological and emotional states in expected ways. Nomological homomorphy analyses suggested that the nomological networks for B-PNI and SB-PNI scales were positively and significantly correlated at the between person level. However, the network of associations was nonsignificant for the grandiosity scales at the within person level. Together, these findings provide support for the construct validity of SB-PNI scores and support the use of the SB-PNI in future studies of narcissistic dynamics.