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Highlights • Malignant Self-Regard is a type of self-structure that account commonalities in vulnerably narcissistic, depressive, self-defeating, and masochistic personality disorder. • Italian adaptation of the Malignant Self-Regard Questionnaire (MSRQ). • Reliability and the validity in a large sample of non-clinical adults from general population (n = 2574). • MSRQ captures several dimensions of personality pathology that are clinically relevant. Abstract Malignant self-regard (MSR) was proposed as a particular type of self-structure that may account for similarities among a set of clinically relevant Personality Disorders (PDs) such as masochistic/self-defeating and depressive PDs that yet have failed to be adequately represented in the diagnostic manuals. The investigation on the MSR may provide a better framework upon which to understand the nature of these personality types and their discrimination from related constructs. The present study examines the psychometric properties of the Italian adaptation of the Malignant Self-Regard Questionnaire (MSRQ). Reliability and validity indicators are determined in a large sample of adults from general population (n = 2574). The measure was found to be reliable and valid, given its correlations with measures of depressive personality, negative affectivity, self-defeating, and vulnerably narcissistic personalities. MSR also can be meaningfully differentiated from a nomological network of related constructs, including sadness rumination, depression, neuroticism, extraversion, and grandiose narcissism. These findings suggest that MSR may be a personality component which includes a negativistic self-representation, vulnerability and hypersensitivity to judgment, sometimes compensated by perfectionistic tendencies. As a whole, results seem to support the reliability and the validity of the Italian adaptation of the MSRQ as a measure of the MSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical and theoretical literature suggest that several proposed personality disorders (PDs) – Masochistic/Self-Defeating, Depressive, and Vulnerably Narcissistic – may be related through a common self-representation know as Malignant Self-Regard (MSR). To assess this construct, the MSR Questionnaire (MSRQ) was developed. Though its initial psychometric properties were very strong, the present study extended these findings by examining the relationship of the MSRQ with measures of other PDs and depressive subtypes, and by establishing four-week and eight-week test–retest reliability in two samples ( Ns =840, 911) of undergraduate students. The MSRQ was internally consistent and temporally stable over four and eight weeks. It was positively correlated with measures of introjective and anaclitic depression, measures of Self-Defeating, Depressive, and Vulnerably Narcissistic personalities ( rs ranging between 0.60 and 0.82), and other select PDs. After controlling for depressive symptoms and self-esteem, the highest remaining partial correlations were with Vulnerably Narcissistic, Self-Defeating, Depressive, and Avoidant personalities. A factor analysis of the MSRQ with measures of other PDs yielded a two-factor solution, with MSR loading most strongly on one factor, along with Vulnerably Narcissistic, Avoidant, Depressive, and Self-Defeating personalities. It is concluded that MSR is a psychometrically supported construct that might have good clinical utility in explaining personality pathology that has historically been difficult to assess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Although relations between depressive and narcissistic pathologies have been proposed in both psychoanalytic and phenomenological literatures, empirical research generally fails to confirm this link. Common measures of narcissism, however, emphasize grandiose rather than vulnerable traits, and include both adaptive and maladaptive features. We therefore assessed the relation between narcissistic personality and depressive temperament (DT) using a recently developed measure designed to assess a wide range of pathological narcissistic (PN) traits. We also examined the distinctiveness of the association between DT and PN controlling other temperaments. Method: The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus et al., 2009), the Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Auto-questionnaire (TEMPS-A; Akiskal et al., 2005), and a modified Schedule of Fatigue and Anergia (SOFA; Hadzi-Pavlovic et al., 2000), were administered to 228 university students. Results: Principal component analyses yielded two components of PN: Component 1 items reflect narcissistic vulnerability—negative affect when narcissistic needs are not met; Component 2 items reflect narcissistic grandiosity—positive affect related to self-enhancement. Component 1 significantly predicted DT, an effect that remained after controlling for Component 2 and other temperaments in the TEMPS-A and SOFA. A similar effect was observed for the anxious temperament. Limitations: Our study is limited by the use of a homogenous, non-clinical university student sample unscreened for clinical depression, and by reliance on self-report questionnaires. Conclusions: Contrary to past research, DT is associated with narcissistic disturbance, in particular with the avoidance of narcissistic injury, when the PNI is used. Clinical intervention targeting this avoidance might help patients with a DT develop self-esteem that is not overly dependant upon recognition from others. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which DPD is associated with poorer quality of parental representations and object relations in patients meeting criteria for either Depressive Personality Disorder (DPD) or Dysthymia. One-hundred ten, primary care, African–American women completed measures of DPD, Dysthymia, parental descriptions of their mother and father (), and provided stories to two pictures that were scored with the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (). Results indicated that Dysthymia could be predicted by all object relations dimensions except Aggression. DPD was uniquely associated with problems of managing aggression, maternal punitiveness, and low paternal benevolence. Ongoing investigation into the biogenetic underpinnings of these disorders appears warranted, as is examination of the differences between them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]