Posted January 28, Reviewed by Michelle Quirk. Narcissism is conceived in personality theory as consisting of both the grandiose variety as this person seems to have and the vulnerable which this person seems not to have. Yet a third approach redefines vulnerable narcissism as consisting of a combination of hypersensitivity and self-centeredness.
At the same time, when the HSNS is administered, it tends to be scored as a unitary quality, a practice that may not hold up to statistical scrutiny. Schneider and her coauthors decided to rectify this situation by deconstructing the HSNS while also testing its validity with a German-speaking sample.
One important consideration the authors note is the fact that the HSNS was developed prior to the newest view of personality disorders known as the Alternate Model of Personality Disorders, which views narcissism not as a categorical quality but as a variation in maladaptive traits. Both of these propose a set of personality trait dimensions that could combined to help refine the understanding of narcissism. Putting scales together and then testing how they relate is important to the work of personality psychologists to provide theoretical clarity as well as to reduce measurement messiness.
Schneider and her coauthors propose that, through the refinement of the HSNS, they can help advance the understanding of narcissism, both for clinical and theoretical purposes. By now, you might want to learn how you could take the HSNS and use it to gauge either yourself or perhaps someone you know.
Although the HSNS was administered in German, the authors summarized its 10 items in their supplemental material.
