Edinburgh Napier University

  Literature suggests that grandiose narcissism may be debilitative to athlete training because the opportunity for self-enhancement that motivates grandiose narcissists to strive for their best is not normally present in training environments (Roberts, Woodman, & Sedikides, 2018, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 190–213). However, this view is rather simplistic as it ignores the potentially differential effects of the so-called adaptive and maladaptive components of grandiose narcissism. Also, it is unclear that whether performance strategies of imagery and goal-setting that provide athletes with inspiring visions may protect against the potential adverse effects of narcissism on training. With institutional approval, we explored interactions between adaptive and maladaptive components of narcissism and performance strategies (specifically goal-setting and imagery), on athlete quality of training. A sample of 175 athletes (M age = 21.83, SD = 5.16; 129 males) from different levels (seven university teams, two premier league teams, three national-level teams) and sports (two individual sports, five team sports) in the UK completed measures of narcissism and performance strategy use. Coaches of the athletes completed a measure of athlete training behaviour (assessing distractibility, quality of preparation, and coping with adversity). We demonstrated consistent three-way interactions between narcissism components and each performance strategy on training behaviours. Specifically, when athlete goal-setting was low (i.e., one SD below sample means), adaptive narcissism contributed to increased distractibility (β = .23, p = .001, 95% CI = [.11, .35]) and poorer quality of preparation (β = −.11, p = .036, 95% CI = [−.21, −.01]) only when maladaptive narcissism was low but not high. However, when athlete use of goal-setting was high, adaptive narcissism was not associated with impaired training regardless of the level of maladaptive narcissism. Results also demonstrated identical interaction effects when considering imagery; that adaptive narcissism was related to increased distractibility (β = .22, p = .001, 95% CI = [.09, .34]) and poorer quality of preparation (β = −.09, p = .089, 95% CI = [−.19, .01]) only when imagery use and maladaptive narcissism were at low levels. The findings suggest that maladaptive narcissism and performance strategies of goal-setting and imagery protect against the potential adverse effects of adaptive narcissism on athlete training. At a broader level the work underscores 1) the importance of considering grandiose narcissism beyond a simple uni-dimensional construct and 2) the exclusive benefits for athletes high in adaptive narcissism of using goal-setting and imagery skills to enhance training.