An Examination of Construct Bias in the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children-Revised (Npqc-R) Across Culture, Gender, and Age
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AN EXAMINATION OF CONSTRUCT BIAS IN THE NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CHILDREN-REVISED (NPQC-R) ACROSS CULTURE, GENDER, AND AGE By © 2015 Wei Yang Loke, Ed.S. Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Department of Psychology and Research in Education and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________________ Chairperson Patricia A. Lowe, Ph.D. ______________________________ Changming Duan, Ph.D. ______________________________ Amy N. Mendenhall, Ph.D. ______________________________ Tamara C. Mikinski, Ph.D. ______________________________ Matthew R. Reynolds, Ph.D. Date Defended: April 22nd, 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Wei Yang Loke certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: An Examination of Construct Bias in the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children- Revised (NPQC-R) across Culture, Gender, and Age ___________________________ Chairperson Patricia Lowe, Ph.D. Date approved: May 3rd, 2015 iii Abstract Construct bias in the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R) was examined using the factor analytic and reliability methods among 701 Singapore and U.S. children and adolescents, ages 12 to 14 years. The NPQC-R is a 12-item measure that comprises of the Superiority and Exploitativeness subscales, and a Total scale. Results from the factor analytic method indicated that there was partial strong measurement invariance on the NPQC-R across culture (Singapore, U.S.) and gender (males, females), and strong measurement invariance on the NPQC-R across age (preadolescents, early adolescents). Also, a preponderance of evidence suggests that there is no construct bias across culture, gender, and age using the reliability methods based on an overlap in the 95% confidence interval of the internal consistency reliability estimates and tests of internal consistency reliability estimates using the Feldt technique between groups on the NPQC-R scale and subcale scores. Results from an examination of latent means indicated that U.S. students reported higher levels of Superiority compared to Singapore students, but no significant difference in the levels of Exploitativeness were found between groups. In addition, males and females had similar levels of Superiority, but males endorsed higher levels of Exploitativeness than females. Furthermore, preadolescents reported higher levels of Superiority compared to early adolescents, but no significant difference in the levels of Exploitativeness were found between the groups. Taken together, these results indicate no evidence of construct bias in the NPQC-R across culture, gender, and age. Limitations, future research directions, and practical implications of this study for practitioners (e.g., school psychologists) to become knowledgeable about the construct of narcissism, as measured by the NPQC-R is similar across culture, gender, and age, are discussed. iv Acknowledgements This journey would not have been complete without the support of many important people in my life. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor and dissertation chair, Trissy, for her encouragement throughout my six years of graduate school. Thank you for always providing me with sound advice and opportunities to grow personally and professionally. This dissertation would not have come to fruition if it were not for your gentle nudging and guidance throughout this process. I am also very grateful to Matt for his advice, and for always being very patient in explaining complex statistical methods to me. In addition, I greatly appreciate the constructive feedback from Drs. Changming Duan, Amy Mendenhall, and Tammy Mikinski in making this dissertation more polished. I am very grateful to Rebecca for inspiring me to go into the field of school psychology. Your advice to apply to the University of Kansas for graduate school has afforded me the opportunity to learn from many great educators and researchers. In addition, I greatly appreciate your willingness to share the data that you had collected in Singapore. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my parents for their unwavering support throughout my life, especially during my graduate school endeavor. This exciting journey would not have been possible without your support. Thank you for believing in me and for instilling in me my thirst for knowledge. I would also like to thank my two sisters for their care and concern despite being many miles away. A special thank you is reserved for my wonderful wife, Erika, for her unconditional love and support. Thank you for always cheering me on and for reminding me to celebrate the little successes in life. You have been very accommodating to my request to spend our weekends in v the library this past year. Words cannot express how grateful I am for all that you have done for me, and I look forward to spending more time with you during the weekends (not in the library). Last, I would like to thank Him for giving me the strength to persevere through the ups and downs of graduate school, especially in the process of writing this dissertation. vi List of Tables Table 1. Standardized factor loadings of the unmodified 1-factor, unmodified 2-factor, and modified 2-factor models for the total sample .................................................................. 62 Table 2. Fit indices for the confirmatory factor analyses of the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R) for the total sample ............................ 64 Table 3. Fit indices for the modified two-factor models of the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R) ............................................................ 65 Table 4. Tesing for measurement invariance: Results of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 67 Table 5. Means (M) and standard deviations (SD) of the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R) scores by group ......................................................... 71 Table 6. Internal consistency reliability estimates and their 95% confidence interval for the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R)...................... 80 Table 7. Group comparisons using the Feldt technique on the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children – Revised (NPQC-R) scale and subscale scores ................... 81 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Modified 2-factor (superiority and exploitativeness) confirmatory factor measurement model for the 12-item NPQC-R measure.......................................................................... 63 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... IV LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ VIII INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 Test Bias. ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Narcissism and Culture. .............................................................................................................. 6 Narcissism and Gender................................................................................................................ 7 Narcissism and Age. .................................................................................................................... 8 Statement of Purpose .................................................................................................................... 9 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 10 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................................ 11 Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 12 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .......................................................................................... 13 Historical Myth of Narcissism ................................................................................................... 13 Clinical and Social Perspectives of Narcissism ........................................................................ 14 Psychoanalytic/Clinical Perspective. ........................................................................................ 14 Social/Personality Perspective. ................................................................................................. 17 Typologies of Narcissism ...........................................................................................................