Expanding the Dynamic Self-Regulatory Processing Model of Narcissism: Research Directions for the Future

The "self-regulatory processing model of narcissism" described in the target article conceptualizes narcissism as a set of intra- and interpersonal processes employed in the service of motivated self-construction. In response to the insightful and constructive commentaries, this article theoretically expands this model to elaborate more fully the paradoxical coexistence of grandiosity and vulnerability in narcissists. Toward this goal, we consider the characteristics of the processing system and cognitive-affective dynamics that might underlie narcissistic grandiosity-vulnerability, as well as possible developmental antecedents. We discuss the possible concurrent operations of two systems-one implicit, hot, impulsive, and affect driven, the other explicit, rational, or cool. This analysis allowed the model to be extended in ways that further illuminates some of narcissists' paradoxical elements and enables specific predictions about the situational features likely to activate and maintain the narcissistic pattern. It is our hope that the model will stimulate additional research and theorizing about narcissism and serve more generally as a framework for the study of other personality types.