Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory

Abstract

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI), consisting of 7 sub-scales, was developed to comprehensively assess the components of narcissism, including not only grandiose but also vulnerable aspects. The purpose of this study was to develop the Japanese version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI-J) and to examine its factor structure, reliability, and validity in the Japanese population. The results from 402 participants showed that the PNI-J has a factor structure that is nearly equivalent to the original PNI. Furthermore, the PNI-J had good test-retest reliability, and had a theoretically reasonable correlation with self-, interpersonal-, and personality-related variables. Additionally, the Japanese version of the Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory (B-PNI-J) was constructed based on previous research, demonstrating nearly the same properties as the full version. Thus, the PNI-J and the B-PNI-J can reflect the pathological features of narcissistic people in the Japanese population more comprehensively than other conventional measurement scales of narcissism.