Self-esteem and narcissism: An item response theory analysis of curvilinearity

An association between grandiose narcissism and self-esteem has been well established. While the two constructs are both associated with an agentic, approach-oriented style, their levels of agreeableness/antagonism and overall adaptivity diverge. Three samples (N = 1920; N = 855, N = 591) were utilized to test the hypothesis that self-esteem may show a curvilinear relationship with narcissism such that relations between self-esteem and narcissism are stronger at particularly high levels of self-esteem. Item Response Theory scoring methods were utilized to maximize power and minimize error. No curvilinear effects consistent with the hypothesis were found. These results are consistent with arguments for substantive differences between self-esteem and narcissism.