In a recent review article published in Psychological Bulletin , researchers explored how narcissism changes throughout a person's life by combining data from various long-term studies. They found that narcissism tends to decrease from childhood to old age but remains quite stable over time, implying that it is a consistent personality trait that significantly affects both individuals and the people around them. Study: Development of Narcissism Across the Life Span: A Meta-Analytic Review of Longitudinal Studies .
Image Credit: Elnur/Shutterstock.com For a long time, researchers have been curious about how narcissism develops through different stages of life. Questions include whether adolescents exhibit higher narcissism levels than other age groups and whether these tendencies decline as people age.
Another avenue of ongoing research is whether individual differences in narcissistic traits remain stable over time, meaning if someone is highly narcissistic at one stage in their life, will they remain so later on? Despite this interest, there is no consensus on these issues, partly because few studies focus specifically on them. Additionally, earlier research has not differentiated between various dimensions of narcissistic personalities, leading to inconsistent findings. An important recent development is a three-factor model of narcissism, which helps researchers understand key dimensions and differentiate between agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic narcissism.
Agentic narc.
