The dynamics of fantasy in daily life: Differentiating schizoid and narcissistic phenomena

This work investigates fantasy in daily life, in relation to momentary mood and personality pathology. First, a pilot study gathers and pretests a set of items to assess and differentiate grandiose fantasy (GF) and schizoid fantasy: A two-factor structure emerges, despite the strong correlation between the factors. Then, the main preregistered study uses ecological momentary assessment in a community sample (N = 150; 3,396 observations) to investigate the correlates of momentary fantasy. Narcissistic traits are uniquely associated with GF but not with schizoid fantasy. The opposite is true for schizoid traits, in line with our hypotheses. Also, momentary negative mood is associated with both fantasies. Exploratory analyses suggest that (a) this pattern of associations holds when controlling for personality dysfunction; (b) narcissistic traits of agentic extraversion and antagonism are responsible for the association of narcissism with GF; (c) there is no evidence that associations between momentary mood and fantasies are moderated by personality traits; and (d) there is no cross-lagged association between mood and fantasy. The study indicates that fantasy may not be a unitary construct, and that both stable individual differences and momentary mood are associated with its deployment.