The Unified Narcissism Scale: Moving Towards an Integrated Measure of Narcissism

Summary

This paper introduces the Unified Narcissism Scale (UNS), a self-report measure designed to integrate grandiose and vulnerable expressions of narcissism within a single instrument. The authors reviewed existing narcissism measures and developed items intended to capture the construct's full breadth, then used factor-analytic methods to establish the scale's structure. The resulting 29-item UNS comprises five subscales: Leadership and Vanity indexing grandiose narcissism, and Contingent Self-Esteem, Grandiose Fantasy, and Hiding One's Needs indexing vulnerable narcissism. The scale demonstrated sound reliability and validity, including expected relationships with established narcissism and personality measures. The UNS offers researchers a more comprehensive and integrated tool for assessing narcissism across its grandiose and vulnerable dimensions.