Self-focused and feeling fine: Assessing state narcissism and its relation to well-being

• This research examines how fluctuations in state narcissism relate to well-being.
• There was a substantial amount of within-person variability in state narcissism.
• In general, state narcissism was associated with higher overall well-being.
• Normal grandiose narcissism was related to greater daily hostility.
• Measures of state pathological narcissism were related to daily guilt and shame.

The current research replicates and extends past findings for within-person variability in narcissism by examining how fluctuations in daily narcissism across three different measures relate to subjective well-being. We assessed state narcissism, daily life satisfaction, positive and negative affect over 14 days (N = 147) and observed substantial within-person variability in three measures of state narcissism. Within-person variability in “normal” grandiose narcissism (the Narcissistic Personality Inventory) was associated with greater life satisfaction, greater positive affect and greater hostility. Within-person variability on self-reports of narcissism reflecting more pathological expressions of narcissism (Single-Item Narcissism Scale, and an adjective-rating measure) were also associated with daily shame and guilt. People may thus display variable levels of normal and pathological narcissism that relate to well-being.