Do you have a healthy ego? Maybe you spend a lot of time trying to look good or you have a tendency to name-drop? Do you spend a lot of time perfecting your online persona? If so, you could be a narcissist.
Strong narcissist personality types are more common that you might expect, say experts taking part in a . And the workplace is where narcissism often flourishes.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder can be defined as having an inflated view of one's own importance and superiority, but the key trait is a lack of empathy. While narcissists may appear successful on the outside, they often have damaging relationships with their partners, children and workmates. The spectrum of narcissistic personality disorder is broad, but those at the severe end of the scale can tear apart the lives of the people around them.
"The simplest way to break it down is it's an inflated, a grandiose view of yourself, you think you're special and unique, you're entitled to special treatment. At the same time you lack really warm empathetic and caring relationships with other people,"
The reality TV industry naturally attracts people with narcissistic personalities, those who jump at the chance to be in front of a television camera. And ever-expanding social media, like Facebook and Twitter, is the perfect medium for telling the world about yourself.
Dr Sophia Xenos says narcissists are likely to be very active Facebook users.
"They're more likely to use the active features, things like the wall, posting regular status updates - posting photos up."
But today narcissism is a normal part of our personal development.
"Some of the youth of today have a higher level of narcissism than perhaps the youth of the past, but one needs to take into account the developmental context to this," says psychiatrist Dr Ranil Gunewarden. "Narcissism is a normal stage of life that people often grow out of and it's not the end of the world if children or youth are going through a narcissistic stage"
He says two-year-olds for example are intensely narcissistic, they expect and get special treatment. The same applies for many teenagers.
"That's a normal stage and the youth also go through this stage, as a necessary evolutionary stage. So if you think about teens and 20s, for example, this is the age where mating is actually at the most prominent stage and we're thinking about having babies. So looking good, feeling good, presenting yourself well is probably an evolutionary advantage to attract a mate."
But it gets dangerous when the individual doesn't grow out of that stage.
"The more concerning thing is if you have a 50-year-old or a 60-year-old, you can sense the difference who's preening themselves for hours on end in front of the mirror and acting like a teenager. They haven't come through that developmental stage so they haven't gotten to more advanced stages like being more generous, thinking more about giving, inspiring and teaching," Dr Gunewardene says.
Narcissism in the workplace
Dr Travis Kemp is an organisational psychologist who professionally coaches senior executives.
"In a lot of ways organisations are the perfect incubators for narcissism because all of the behaviours that we've been talking about are rewarded in organisations and they're rewarded well," he says.
"They're rewarded in terms of status, position and admiration. Financially they're incredibly well remunerated, the more narcissistic behaviour in some situations. So being focused on a singular goal which is unattainable is a great thing if you're a CEO because the shareholders will love you."
And, he says, having empathy is not what CEOs are paid to focus one – it's the bottom line.
"There is a lot of really good leaders out there that are not non-narcissistic and we would say well adjusted narcissistic. It's when it becomes destructive and it gets out of hand that things really falling apart," says Dr Kemp.
When the overly-narcissistic boss starts bullying, it leads to low levels of staff engagement, hence absenteeism goes up and productivity falls.
