Narcissism–performance research has focused on grandiose narcissism but has not examined the interaction between its so-called adaptive (reflecting overconfidence) and maladaptive (reflecting a domineering orientation) components. In this research, the authors tested interactions between adaptive and maladaptive narcissism using two motor tasks (basketball and golf in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) and a cognitive task (letter transformation in Experiment 3). Across all experiments, adaptive narcissism predicted performance under pressure only when maladaptive narcissism was high. In the presence of maladaptive narcissism, adaptive narcissism also predicted decreased pre-putt time in Experiment 2 and an adaptive psychophysiological response in Experiment 3, reflecting better processing efficiency. Findings suggest that individuals high in both aspects of narcissism perform better under pressure thanks to superior task processing. In performance contexts, the terms “adaptive” and “maladaptive”—adopted from social psychology—are oversimplistic and inaccurate. The authors believe that “self-inflated narcissism” and “dominant narcissism” are better monikers for these constructs.

自恋-绩效研究主要集中在浮夸的自恋上，但没有研究其所谓的适应性（反映过度自信）和适应不良（反映专横取向）成分之间的相互作用。在这项研究中，作者使用两项运动任务（实验 1 和 2 中分别为篮球和高尔夫）和认知任务（实验 3 中的字母转换）测试了适应性自恋和适应不良自恋之间的相互作用。在所有实验中，只有当适应不良自恋很高时，适应性自恋才能预测压力下的表现。在存在适应不良自恋的情况下，适应性自恋还预测实验 2 中的推杆前时间减少和实验 3 中的适应性心理生理反应，反映了更好的处理效率。研究结果表明，由于出色的任务处理能力，自恋这两方面都较高的人在压力下表现得更好。在表演环境中，来自社会心理学的术语“适应性”和“适应不良”过于简单化和不准确。作者认为，“自我膨胀的自恋”和“主导性自恋”是这些概念的更好的绰号。