The Psychotherapeutic Utility of the Five-Factor Model of Personality: A Clinician's Experience

This article summarizes experience using the five-factor model of personality, operationalized by the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), to facilitate psychotherapy treatment with 119 private-practice, outpatient, psychotherapy patients and their family members over a period of 2 years. Trait theories such as the five-factor model implicitly challenge the premises of much clinical theory, yet they can be useful to clinicians, as they provide a detailed, accurate portrait of the client's needs, feelings, proximate motives, and interpersonal style. I suggest that: Neuroticism (N) influences the intensity and duration of the patient's distress, Extraversion (E) influences the patient's enthusiasm for treatment, Openness (O) influences the patient's reactions to the therapist's interventions, Agreeableness (A) influences the patient's reaction to the person of the therapist, and Conscientiousness (C) influences the patient's willingness to do the work of psychotherapy. Fundamental questions raised by the five-factor model about the nature of psychopathology and psychotherapy are discussed.     

Clinical Use of the Five-Factor Model: An Introduction

In the past decade, clinical psychologists have developed a renewed appreciation of the value of assessment. At the same time, personality psychologists have come to agree on a fundamental taxonomy of personality traits, the five-factor model. Articles in this special series describe the model and its measurement and discuss applications in three different settings: general clinical practice, a sexual behaviors consultation unit, and a behavioral medicine clinic. This introduction raises questions about the use of personality profiles in psychodiagnosis, the range of applicability of the five-factor model, the utility of personality feedback in psychotherapy, the stability of personality scores among psychotherapy patients, and the feasibility of using personality scores to select optimal forms of treatment. This special series is intended to stimulate research on such topics.     

Clinical use of the five-factor model: an introduction.

In the past decade, clinical psychologists have developed a renewed appreciation of the value of assessment. At the same time, personality psychologists have come to agree on a fundamental taxonomy of personality traits, the five-factor model. Articles in this special series describe the model and its measurement and discuss applications in three different settings: general clinical practice, a sexual behaviors consultation unit, and a behavioral medicine clinic. This introduction raises questions about the use of personality profiles in psychodiagnosis, the range of applicability of the five-factor model, the utility of personality feedback in psychotherapy, the stability of personality scores among psychotherapy patients, and the feasibility of using personality scores to select optimal forms of treatment. This special series is intended to stimulate research on such topics.     

On the heritability of job satisfaction: the mediating role of personality

In this article the authors investigate the extent to which traits reflecting individual differences in personality and affectivity explain or mediate genetic influences on job satisfaction. Using estimates of the dispositional source of job satisfaction according to 2 dispositional frameworks--the five-factor model and positive affectivity-negative affectivity (PA-NA)--and behavioral-genetic estimates of the heritabilities of job satisfaction and the dispositional factors, the authors computed the proportion of genetic variance in job satisfaction that is explained by these trait frameworks. Results indicate that the affectivity model is a stronger mediator of genetic effects on job satisfaction than the five-factor model. PA and NA mediate about 45% of the genetic influences on job satisfaction, whereas the five-factor model mediates approximately 24% of these genetic effects.     

Self-reports, spouse ratings, and psychophysiological assessment in a behavioral medicine program: an application of the five-factor model.

This article describes the integration of the five-factor model into assessment procedures used with 109 patients in an outpatient behavioral medicine program. The population, program, assessment techniques, and general findings are explored. A case history involving a psychophysiological disorder is utilized to demonstrate the utility of a taxonomy of personality traits. The NEO-PI, a five-factor instrument, is integrated with other assessment techniques to assist in diagnosis, rapport building with the patient, tailoring treatment techniques and goals to the individual's intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics, and predicting relative success and compliance with noninvasive self-regulation procedures and psychotherapy.     

The place of self psychology in group psychotherapy: a status report.

This article reviews the growing contribution of self psychology to group psychotherapy. The basic self-psychological concepts as they are applied to group dynamics and the treatment process are explored. Transference, countertransference, and self-restitutive patterns are illustrated in a clinical vignette that includes a "difficult" patient's impact upon the interactional and group-as-a-whole processes. Several directions for future investigation are described.     

The influence of trait affect and the five-factor personality model on impulse buying

Research into the influence of affect on impulse buying has to date produced contradictory results, partly due to confusion between the potentially discrete influences of, respectively, state and trait affect. Additionally, studies on how the five-factor personality model’s dimensions influence impulse buying have also produced contradictory results. Moreover, while the established link between trait affect and personality suggests dimensions of this latter could account for whatever influence the former has on impulse buying, no study has yet attempted to examine this possibility. We draw on self-regulation theory to examine three unanswered questions: (1) the extent to which trait affect influences impulse buying whilst controlling for state affect; (2) establish which dimensions of the five-factor personality model predict impulse buying; and (3) test whether or not any influence of trait affect on impulse buying is additive to the effects of the five-factor personality model. Analyses of cross-sectional data (n = 842) find that trait affect does have a significant (p < .05) influence on impulse buying controlling for state affect, but that this influence is fully accounted for by the five-factor personality model (p < .001), the extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism dimensions of which are found consistently to predict impulse buying.     

Sources of structure: genetic, environmental, and artifactual influences on the covariation of personality traits

The phenotypic structure of personality traits has been well described, but it has not yet been explained causally. Behavior genetic covariance analyses can identify the underlying causes of phenotypic structure; previous behavior genetic research has suggested that the effects from both genetic and nonshared environmental influences mirror the phenotype. However, nonshared environmental effects are usually estimated as a residualterm that may also include systematic bias, such as that introduced by implicit personality theory. To reduce that bias, we supplemented data from Canadian and German twin studies with cross-observer correlations on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The hypothesized five-factor structure was found in both the phenotypic and genetic/familial covariances. When the residual covariance was decomposed into true nonshared environmental influences and method bias, only the latter showed the five-factor structure. True nonshared environmental influences are not structured as genetic influences are, although there was some suggestion that they do affect two personality dimensions, Conscientiousness and Love. These data reaffirm the value of behavior genetic analyses for research on the underlying causes of personality traits.     

Personality and Health: Advantages and Limitations of the Five-Factor Model

Interest in the association between personality characteristics and physical health has been renewed in recent years. Theory and research in this area has also been complicated by conceptual and methodological limitations. The present article briefly reviews this literature and discusses the advantages and limitations of the five-factor model of personality as an integrating framework for studies of personality and health. The model has already been fruitfully applied in several contexts, and more possibilities exist. Although it has some potential limitations, the application of the five-factor model--as well as other aspects of current personality theory and research--is likely to facilitate progress in the study of how personality influences health.     

Interaction of therapeutic process and alliance during psychological assessment

Utilizing a collaborative therapeutic assessment (TA) model proposed by Finn and Tonsager (1997), we examined the interaction between therapeutic alliance and in-session process during the assessment phase of treatment. This study compares the utility of the TA model (n = 38) versus a traditional information gathering model (n = 90) of assessment. The results of this study indicate that the use of a TA model may decrease the number of patients who terminate treatment against medical advice. The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (Stiles & Snow, 1984), Combined Alliance Short Form (Hatcher & Barends, 1996), and Penn Helping Alliance Questionnaire-Revised (Barber & Crits-Christoph, 1996) can reliably measure the patient's experience of the assessment. The psychological assessment process may impact the patient's experience of assessment feedback and aid in the development of a therapeutic alliance. The therapeutic alliance developed during the assessment was found to be related to alliance early in psychotherapy. We discuss the theoretical, clinical, and research implications of these findings.     

Psychotherapy: Definitions, Mechanisms of Action, and Relationship to Etiological Models

In this paper, we define psychotherapy as a modality of treatment in which the therapist and patient(s) work together to ameliorate psychopathologic conditions and functional impairment through focus on the therapeutic relationship; the patient's attitudes, thoughts, affect, and behavior; and social context and development. The possible mechanisms of action and active ingredients of psychotherapy in children and adolescents are discussed, with an emphasis on the above-noted domains. The adult psychotherapy literature strongly supports the central roles of the therapeutic relationship and therapeutic empathy; this has been much less intensively explored in the child and adolescent psychotherapy literature. Similarly, there have been few studies examining the mediation of treatment effects by impact on specific domains. Ideally, treatment studies should gather data that can be informative about the impact of putative mediating and moderating psychosocial and biological variables on outcome and course. The results of such studies can aid further refinements in both theories of etiology and improvement in treatments for children and adolescents.     

Adolescent personality: a five-factor model construct validation

The purpose of this study was to investigate convergent and discriminant validity of the five-factor model of adolescent personality in a school setting using three different raters (methods): self-ratings, peer ratings, and teacher ratings. The authors investigated validity through a multitrait-multimethod matrix and a confirmatory factor analysis correlated trait, uncorrelated method model. With the exception of Emotional Stability, each analysis demonstrated similar patterns and together provided support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the five-factor model structure of adolescent personality. However, among the three raters, self-ratings of personality provided a comparatively weaker method for assessing adolescent personality. The influences of agreement between self and other raters are discussed in relation to contrast, perceiver, and target effects; expert observer effects; the degree of acquaintanceship; and the effect of the social context.     

Supervising Integrative Psychotherapy in the 21st Century: Pressing Needs,Impressing Possibilities

Supervisors and teachers who are interested in advancing integrative psychotherapy in the 21st century have the dual task of surveying the range of treatment approaches that have been developed and distilling these approaches down to a manageable number of influences that have been found to have the greatest impact on clinical practice over time. It has been proposed that there are four bona fide schools of psychotherapy that would be most useful for comprehensive training and supervision that would contribute to either (a) case conceptualization or (b) the process of clinical interviewing: psychodynamic psychotherapy; cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy; family systems therapy; and, humanistic/client-centered therapy. The goal for such broadly based clinical instruction would be for students, trainees, and interns to have an ability to provide a multi-level case conceptualization for any of the psychotherapy cases for which they are providing treatment. Thorough instruction in clinical reasoning and decision-making in this type of multi-level case formulation can provide some of the most valuable tools for novice and experienced clinicians alike.     

Group psychotherapy as taught by the polsters and the gouldings

Psychotherapy has been viewed by many as a subtle form of interpersonal persuasion. However, persuasion, or the lack of it, in a psychotherapy relationship is not always clearly definable. Most agree that persuasion is influenced by a number of important factors, of which the personal characteristics of the therapist are generally recognized as the most significant. Experience, credibility, training, dedication, values and enthusiasm are attributes usually agreed upon as being important contributors to the therapist's power to persuade. Understandably, psychotherapy conceptualized in this manner raises significant issues of values, ethics and responsibility in treatment. While not all agree or recognize persuasive influences existing in psychotherapy, it is suggested that persuasion is a salient feature of psychotherapy, whether or not it is identified as such. It is important to remember that in all psychotherapy, trouble is apt to follow the ignorant applications of important forces. Further, it is suggested that these persuasive influences cross doctrinal differences and can be augmented by applying them with a group psychotherapy setting. In the hands of a skilled and ethical psychotherapist, these persuasive influences can be enhanced and the group can become a powerful tool in the therapeutic process. These issues are explored in this paper in relation to two different group psychotherapy training experiences with Bob and Mary Goulding and Erv and Miriam Polster.     

Thirty years of teaching psychotherapy skills

The author outlines a basic model for teaching psychotherapeutic skills that includes five modules relating to (1) the dynamics of exploration, designed to encourage the patient's affective expression; (2) relationship structure, considering patterns of patient-therapist interaction along a closeness/separateness continuum; (3) affect, empathy, and distance regulation, emphasizing the crucial significance of identifying correctly and responding empathically to patients' affective messages; (4) basic cognitive interventions, focused on techniques for facilitating the patient's narrative flow and capacity to analyze experiences, and for formulating the patient's psychopathology; and (5) the therapist's use of self. The author concludes by examining why systematic psychotherapy training is particularly important at this time, in light of such pressures as managed health care, neuroscientific advances and psychopharmacologic breakthroughs, and the wave of self-help organizations.     

Dimensions and categories: the "big five" factors and the DSM personality disorders

The five-factor model of personality, which has been widely studied in personality psychology, has been hypothesized to have specific relevance for DSM-defined personality disorders. To evaluate hypothesized relationships of the five-factor model of personality to personality disorders, 144 patients with personality disorders (diagnosed via a structured interview) completed an inventory to assess the five-factor model. Results indicated that the majority of the personality disorders can be differentiated in theoretically predictable ways using the five-factor model of personality. However, while the personality disorders as a whole appear to be differentiable from normal personality functioning on the five factors, the patterns are quite similar across the disorders, a finding that may provide some insight into the general nature of personality pathology but may also suggest problems with discriminant validity. Third, it does not appear that considering disorders as special combinations of features (as might be expected in some categorical models) is more informative than considering them as the sum of certain features (as might be expected in a dimensional model).     

Integrating Individual and Family Systems Psychotherapy to Treat Borderline Personality Disorder

This paper focuses on two areas. The first is the framework for psychotherapy integration used by Unified Therapy, a psychotherapy approach that is an integration of psychodynamic, cognitive–behavioral, and family systems therapy. The second is the use of this treatment paradigm in the psychotherapy of adults with borderline personality disorder. The theory posits that continuing and recurrent interpersonal behavior patterns within the patient's family of origin serve as behavioral triggers to typical acting-out behaviors. Therapy is geared toward planning strategies to alter these destructive patterns. A case example is presented to demonstrate the use of the therapy's theories and techniques.     

On the devalued self: Implications for a transtheoretical psychotherapy

An outline of a transtheoretical psychotherapy dealing with the participants' individual and interacting self-concepts is presented. It is believed that this approach (1) is consistent with social learning and conflict theories of psychopathology, (2) provides a concise definition of the patient's central problem and of the relevant goals of treatment, (3) suggests ways of understanding the centrally important covert processes of psychotherapy and of dealing with the participants' resistances to treatment, (4) offers empirical criteria for determining treatment progress and for terminating treatment, and (5) suggests possibilities for psychotherapy research based on empirical criteria.     

Heritability of the Big Five Personality Dimensions and Their Facets: A Twin Study

ABSTRACT The genetic and environmental etiology of the five-factor model of personality as measured by the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was assessed using 123 pairs of identical twins and 127 pairs of fraternal twins. Broad genetic influence on the five dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness was estimated at 41%, 53%, 61%, 41%, and 44%, respectively. The facet scales also showed substantial heritability, although for several facets the genetic influence was largely nonadditive. The influence of the environment was consistent across all dimensions and facets. Shared environmental influences accounted for a negligible proportion of the variance in most scales, whereas nonshared environmental influences accounted for the majority of the environmental variance in all scales.     

Einstellungen zu Psychotherapie

In a representative survey 2,129 subjects were questioned about their attitudes towards outpatient psychotherapy. This study was carried out on behalf of the Apotheken Umschau (Pharmacy Review) by the “GfK Nürnberg” (Society for Consumer Research Nuremberg) from January 2012 to February 2012. In the survey also people who had once received or were currently undergoing outpatient psychotherapy took part and these respondents were surveyed about their reasons for seeking treatment and their experiences with outpatient psychotherapy. When available results were compared with the findings from a survey carried out in 2003. The majority of respondents appraised psychotherapy as being essential and helpful in treating mental disorders and as being useful in personal crises. Women were more open-minded about psychotherapy than men; nevertheless 34 % considered that it would be embarrassing if neighbours or friends were aware that they were undergoing psychotherapy. Of the respondents 28 % categorically excluded psychotherapy for themselves, 216 declared that they had undergone psychotherapy and of the latter 83 % judged the psychotherapy to be successful.