Personality and personality disorders

PSYCHOLOGIA

The validity of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality for diagnosing personality disorder (PD) was examined in two equivalent PD groups, one with dimensional criteria (N = 246) and the other with categorical criteria (N = 165), selected from 1,088 university students. Both equivalent PD groups did not exhibit specific profiles for each PD on FFM scales of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), and multiple regression analyses showed that FFM scores only partly predicted PD, although it was improved by the prototype-matching method. The comorbidity was not different in dimensional and categorical measures of PD. The results suggest that the FFM of personality is useful for providing information about the personality in each individual, but is not very helpful for diagnosing PDs, because each PD does not necessarily exhibit a specific homogeneous trait constellation on FFM based on the NEO-PI-R. Personality trait description and diagnosis of PD are not the same issues. It is necessary to integrate dimensional and categorical approaches to PDs for a more precise classification and diagnosis.

British Journal of …, 1998

Psychological Reports, 1994

McCrae and Costa since 1986 have proferred a five-factor personality model as a lingua franca among different psychometric test users, and they suggest that their operationalization of the five-factor model, the NEO Personality Inventory, may also be useful in the clinical assessment of the abnormal personality. The present study examined the inventory and its relationship to the 11 personality disorders of Axis II of DSM-III—R in a sample of 180 adults. Correlational multivariate analyses appear to indicate a limited usefulness of the five-factor model in the understanding of personality disorders, and four major objections are offered. Further research with clinical samples, other models of personality, and other measures of personality disorders are encouraged.

Journal of Personality, 2012

Previous research has suggested that clinicians would be unable to recover DSM-IV-TR personality disorder diagnoses on the basis of information provided by the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality disorder. However, the prior research did not provide all of the information that would be available to a clinician when determining a personality disorder diagnosis; more specifically, the maladaptive personality traits associated with each FFM trait elevation. In the current study, 201 clinicians provided DSM-IV-TR personality disorder diagnoses on the basis of either the DSM-IV-TR criterion sets or the respective FFM maladaptive personality traits. Accuracy using the FFM maladaptive traits was much improved over the prior research and comparable to the accuracy obtained with the criterion sets. The clinicians also rated the FFM and the DSM-IV-TR as comparably useful for obtaining a DSM-IV-TR personality disorder diagnosis.

Personality and Individual Differences, 2018

The classical nosographical approach to personality disorders leads to a set of categories that may be considered to be both conceptually and empirically problematic. In this regard, the DSM-5 includes an alternative dimensional model for which the Personality Inventory Disorders (PID-5) has been developed. Our study compares this alternative dimensional model in regards to both personality disorder categories and normal personality dimensions. The 537 participants in our study, 65.4% of whom were women, completed both the PID-5 and the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) screening questionnaire. Among these participants, 273 participants (64.1% women) also completed the revised version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI-R). A multiple factor analysis indicated that two higher-order principal dimensions described the relationships between the PID-5 and both the IPDE and the NEO-FFI-R. These relationships were analyzed in greater detail using a Principal Axis Factor Analysis. Five and four, respectively, intercorrelated lower-level factors were considered after a parallel analysis that confirmed to a certain extent that normal and abnormal personalities share a common underlying structure. Finally, a multiple regression bootstrap series confirmed the close associations between the PID-5 and both the IPDE and the NEO-FFI-R scales. Our results indicate that the PID-5 offers an alternative perspective for describing symptom syndromes with personality pathology.

Journal of Personality, 2012

It is evident that the conceptualization, diagnosis, and classification of personality disorder is shifting toward a dimensional model. The purpose of this special issue of Journal of Personality is to indicate how the five-factor model (FFM) can provide a useful and meaningful basis for an integration of the description and classification of both normal and abnormal personality functioning. This introductory article discusses its empirical support and the potential advantages of understanding personality disorders including those included within the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and likely future PDs from the dimensional perspective of the FFM.

Journal of Personality, 2001

The ability of trait models of personality to account for categories of personality disorder is examined with particular reference to the fivefactor approach. Although dimensional models are consistent with the evidence, and trait models can accommodate personality disorder categories, it is not clear that such models are directly applicable to clinical use. The lower-order or facet structure, in particular, needs further development to capture clinical concepts. It is also suggested that trait models do not account for all aspects of personality disorder-attention also needs to be paid to the organizing and integrative functions of personality. The publication of this special section is a further indication of the growing rapprochement between the study of personality disorder and that of normal personality. Until now, the classification of personality disorder has largely neglected the accomplishments of personality research. Successive editions of the recent DSMs were developed with almost total disregard for conceptions of normal personality. Instead of benefiting from progress in the taxonomy of normal personality traits, psychiatric nosologists turned to medicine and biology rather than psychology for models for classifying psychopathology. They continue to

American Journal of Psychiatry, 2004

Objective: Researchers have advocated replacing the DSM-IV classification of personality disorders with an alternative diagnostic system based on the five-factor model. This study evaluates the clinical comprehensiveness of the five-factor model and addresses the broader question of how many factors, and which factors, are necessary to understand personality pathology. Method: A national sample of 530 psychiatrists and clinical psychologists used the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200) to provide detailed psychological descriptions of patients with personality disorder diagnoses. The SWAP-200 is a 200-item instrument designed to capture the richness and complexity of clinical observations while also providing quantifiable data for research. We used factor analysis to identify dimensions of personality relevant to understanding personality pathology. Results: The five-factor structure replicated in a content-restricted subset of 60 SWAP-200 items. However, factor analysis of the full SWAP-200 yielded a conceptually richer factor solution that did not resemble the five-factor model. The analysis identified 12 clinically relevant personality dimensions labeled psychological health, psychopathy, hostility, narcissism, emotional dysregulation, dysphoria, schizoid orientation, obsessionality, thought disorder, oedipal conflict (histrionic sexualization), dissociation, and sexual conflict. Conclusions: The five-factor model represents a sound distillation of the personality constructs used by laypersons. However, it omits key clinical constructs and may not capture the complexity of personality syndromes seen in clinical practice. The SWAP-200 factors may provide a framework for studying personality pathology that is both empirically grounded and clinically relevant.

Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality (2nd ed.)., 2002