{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T19:01:23Z","timestamp":1790103683746,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sci.","Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Alexithymia may constrain emotion regulation, but its relevance may differ across personality configurations. This study examined whether narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry are embedded in distinct early maladaptive schema and alexithymia profiles. Methods: A non-clinical adult sample (N = 311) completed the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Young Schema Questionnaire\u2013Short Form 3, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale\u201320. Analyses examined 18 schemas and three alexithymia components\u2014Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF), and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT)\u2014using zero-order correlations, within-domain regressions, hierarchical regressions, and structural equation models. Results: Admiration was associated mainly with Approval\/Recognition Seeking and Unrelenting Standards and with lower Social Isolation\/Alienation, Defectiveness\/Shame, Failure, Subjugation, Emotional Inhibition, and Insufficient Self-Control. Rivalry showed a threat-related profile involving Defectiveness\/Shame, Subjugation, Emotional Inhibition, Negativity\/Pessimism, and Insufficient Self-Control. Entitlement\/Grandiosity was positively associated with both dimensions and did not reliably differentiate them. Alexithymia was essentially unrelated to Admiration and did not improve its schema model. In contrast, adding DIF, DDF, and EOT increased explained variance in Rivalry by 5.5%, a small-to-moderate increment; DIF and EOT made independent contributions, whereas DDF did not. A parsimonious Rivalry structural model reproduced these associations but showed mixed global fit. Conclusions: These cross-sectional findings indicate a modest, dimension-specific contribution of alexithymic processing to Rivalry rather than a general association with narcissistic self-regulation. The EOT findings require particular caution because of the subscale\u2019s limited reliability. Longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to test the proposed vulnerability\u2013stress process.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci16090990","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T17:56:41Z","timestamp":1790099801000},"page":"990","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["When Alexithymia Matters: Distinct Schema\u2013Emotion Processing Profiles of Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1409-5218","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dawid Konrad","family":"\u015aciga\u0142a","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Ul. Szcz\u0119\u015bliwicka 40, 02-353 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4522-5652","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matteo Angelo","family":"Fabris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8275-2585","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"El\u017cbieta","family":"Zdankiewicz-\u015aciga\u0142a","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University, Chodakowska 19\/31, 03-815 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1013","DOI":"10.1037\/a0034431","article-title":"Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: Disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism","volume":"105","author":"Back","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Pers. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109679","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paid.2019.109679","article-title":"Narcissism and emotion dysregulation: Narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry have divergent associations with emotion regulation difficulties","volume":"154","author":"Cheshure","year":"2020","journal-title":"Pers. Individ. Dif."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"180","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paid.2016.07.003","article-title":"Narcissistic admiration and rivalry in the context of personality metatraits","volume":"102","author":"Rogoza","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pers. Individ. Dif."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1177\/1088868316685018","article-title":"The Narcissism Spectrum Model: A synthetic view of narcissistic personality","volume":"22","author":"Krizan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108227","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chiabu.2026.108227","article-title":"The relationship between childhood maltreatment and narcissistic dimensions across healthy and clinical populations","volume":"179","author":"Ratzsch","year":"2026","journal-title":"Child Abus. Negl."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1037\/cps0000108","article-title":"The associations between early maladaptive schemas and adult attachment styles: A meta-analysis","volume":"30","author":"Karantzas","year":"2023","journal-title":"Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract."},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"741","article-title":"Working in the Dark? Exploring the Relationship Between the Dark Triad and Early Maladaptive Schemas","volume":"34","author":"Fritzon","year":"2026","journal-title":"Trends Psychol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112375","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paid.2023.112375","article-title":"Conceptualizing alexithymia","volume":"215","author":"Preece","year":"2023","journal-title":"Pers. Individ. Dif."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1774","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neubiorev.2013.05.005","article-title":"Neural correlates of alexithymia: A meta-analysis of emotion processing studies","volume":"37","author":"Servaas","year":"2013","journal-title":"Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Van Bael, K., Scarfo, J., Suleyman, E., Katherveloo, J., Grimble, N., and Ball, M. (2024). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between subjective interoception and alexithymia: Implications for construct definitions and measurement. PLoS ONE, 19.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0310411"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1515","DOI":"10.1093\/brain\/awq060","article-title":"Empathic brain responses in insula are modulated by levels of alexithymia but not autism","volume":"133","author":"Bird","year":"2010","journal-title":"Brain"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lockwood, P.L., Bird, G., Bridge, M., and Viding, E. (2013). Dissecting empathy: High levels of psychopathic and autistic traits are characterized by difficulties in different social information processing domains. Front. Hum. Neurosci., 7.","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2013.00760"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"428","DOI":"10.1111\/sjop.12226","article-title":"Alexithymia and early maladaptive schemas in chronic pain patients","volume":"56","author":"Saariaho","year":"2015","journal-title":"Scand. J. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2914","DOI":"10.1002\/cpp.2914","article-title":"Early maladaptive schemas, emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia: A systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"31","author":"Pilkington","year":"2024","journal-title":"Clin. Psychol. Psychother."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Q., Liu, Q., Jia, M., Zhang, S., Zhang, L., and Cong, Z. (2026). The relationship between childhood trauma, early maladaptive schema and alexithymia: A multi-group path model of clinical and non-clinical samples. Front. Psychol., 17.","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1754917"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Preece, D.A., Ditzer, J., and Gross, J.J. (2025). Emotion Regulation. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology, Oxford Academic.","DOI":"10.1093\/acrefore\/9780190236557.013.923"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"232","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jad.2022.12.065","article-title":"Alexithymia and emotion regulation","volume":"324","author":"Preece","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Affect. Disord."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mortezaei, A., McIntyre, C.S., Taylor, G.J., and Bagby, R.M. (2026). Predictive discriminant validity of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: Incremental prediction of emotion regulation beyond psychological distress. Behav. Sci., 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16060854"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"96","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbtep.2010.07.004","article-title":"Trouble ahead, trouble behind: Narcissism and early maladaptive schemas","volume":"42","author":"Green","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"410","article-title":"Polska adaptacja modelu narcystycznego podziwu i rywalizacji","volume":"21","author":"Rogoza","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pol. Forum Psychol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"707","DOI":"10.12740\/PP\/OnlineFirst\/76541","article-title":"Polish adaptation of the Young Schema Questionnaire 3 Short Form (YSQ-S3-PL)","volume":"52","author":"Oettingen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Psychiatr. Pol."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-3999(94)90005-1","article-title":"The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale\u2014I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure","volume":"38","author":"Bagby","year":"1994","journal-title":"J. Psychosom. Res."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"\u015aciga\u0142a, D.K., Zdankiewicz-\u015aciga\u0142a, E., Bedy\u0144ska, S., and Kokoszka, A. (2020). Psychometric properties and configural invariance of the Polish-language version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in non-clinical and alcohol addict persons. Front. Psychol., 11.","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2020.01241"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"387","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2007.07.003","article-title":"The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in morality and psychopathy","volume":"11","author":"Blair","year":"2007","journal-title":"Trends Cogn. Sci."}],"container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3425\/16\/9\/990\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T18:06:50Z","timestamp":1790100410000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3425\/16\/9\/990"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"references-count":24,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9]]}},"alternative-id":["brainsci16090990"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/brainsci16090990","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-3425"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2076-3425","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]}}}