6 The Narcissistic Self: Background, an Extended Agency Model, and Ongoing Controversies

N arcissism is a quality of the self that has significant implications forthinking, feeling, and behaving. Individuals with narcissistic personalitypossess highly inflated, unrealistically positive views of the self. Often-times, this includes strong self-focus, feelings of entitlement, and lack of regard for others. Narcissists focus on what benefits them personally, with less regard for how their actions may benefit (or harm) others. Most interesting from our perspective as self-researchers is the vast array of self-regulatory strategies used by narcissists (e.g., admiration-seeking, bragging, displaying material goods, socializing with important individuals, etc.). These strategies are both causes and consequences of narcissists ’ inflated self-beliefs. Our general orientation toward the narcissistic self is evident in the agency model of narcissism (Campbell, Brunell, & Finkel, 2006). As originally conceptualized, however, the agency model left out some important aspects of narcissistic self-regulation. In this chapter, we briefly review the literature on narcissism and more specifically narcissistic self-regulation. We then present an extended agency model that includes aspects of narcissistic self-regulation previously ignored by the original model. Finally, we discuss some of the current controversies surrounding narcissism in the literature