DSM-5 personality traits and DSM-IV personality disorders

Two issues pertinent to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5) proposal for personality pathology, the recovery of DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs) by proposed DSM-5 traits and the validity of the proposed DSM-5 hybrid model, which incorporates both personality pathology symptoms and maladaptive traits, were evaluated in a large undergraduate sample (N = 808). Proposed DSM-5 traits as assessed with the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 explained a substantial proportion of variance in DSM-IV PDs as assessed with the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+, and trait indicators of the 6 proposed DSM-5 PDs were mostly specific to those disorders with some exceptions. Regression analyses support the DSM-5 hybrid model in that pathological traits, and an indicator of general personality pathology severity provided incremental information about PDs. Findings are discussed in the context of broader issues around the proposed DSM-5 model of personality disorders.     

Assessing young adolescents' personality with the five-factor personality inventory

The Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) assesses a person's position on the (Dutch) psycholexically based Big Five factors: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Autonomy. FFPI factor scores are reliable and valid if ratings are made by adults. The present study yields preliminary evidence of whether young adolescents provide reliable and valid self-ratings on this instrument or whether this depends on their cognitive ability level. The sample consisted of a large and representative cohort of youngsters with a mean age of 13 years. The adult structure of the FFPI was generally well replicated, across all ability levels represented in the study. The findings further suggest that young adolescents' factor scores are construct-valid and sufficiently reliable to be used in (group) research settings. However, for reports on individual profiles and decision making, an adolescent's cognitive ability level would need to be rather high. Even then, measuring Autonomy seems challenging.     

On the renaissance of personality assessment and personality theory

Both personality assessment and personality theory have experienced a significant decline in the past two or three decades, giving way to alternate professional interests by some, and being attacked as both empirically unsupportable and devoid of conceptual merit by others. Several tangible signs suggest that a resurrection is underway owing to position reversals by former critics, the changing character of patient populations, refinements in personality-oriented psychometric techniques, the refurbishing of analytic, interpersonal, and learning theories of personality, and the central role assigned personality disorders in the multiaxial format of the DSM-III. Looking toward the future, the paper proposes a series of comprehensive and parallel diagnostic criteria for the personality disorders to be included in either DSM-IIIR or DSM-IV.     

Psychodiagnosis of personality structure: psychotic personality organization.

Recent developments in Rorschach psychology, including nomothetic approaches focused on scores, ratios, and indices and idiographic approaches focused on content emerging from psychoanalytic theory, offer the Rorschach clinician a rich and potent interpretive methodology. This article examines the structural diagnosis of personality organization with a focus on psychotic personality structure. Rorschach approaches to the differential diagnosis of psychotic personality organization are presented. The Rorschach is viewed as indispensible in the differential diagnosis of personality organization, especially in the so-called "borderline" cases.     

Dimensional personality profiles of borderline personality disorder in comparison with other personality disorders and healthy controls

The present study examined the sensitivity and clinical specificity of dimensional personality profiles associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) by comparing three groups of patients: (a) patients with BPD according to DSM-IV criteria (n = 31); (b) patients with other DSM-IV PD (n = 31); and (c) general population controls (n = 31). All three samples were matched for age and gender and the two patient samples were matched for chronicity and depressive symptoms. All patients were given the Six-Factor Test measuring the five-factor model of personality (FFM), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP). Nonparametric statistics were applied to analyze the data (Mann-Whitney-U-tests for group comparisons; Spearman's coefficients for correlational analyses). Neuroticism (FFM), Self-Directedness (TCI), and Emotional Dysregulation (DAPP) were identified as general markers of personality pathology, which were significantly interrelated in all three samples. BPD patients also showed a specific profile compared with other PD patients with lower scores on Agreeableness (FFM), higher scores on Novelty Seeking and Self-Transcendence (TCI), and higher scores on the DAPP higher-order dimensions of Emotional Dysregulation, Dissocial Behavior, and Inhibitedness. Results support the assumption that BPD can be characterized by dimensional approaches with sufficient sensitivity in comparison with healthy controls and specificity in comparison with other PD patients.     

Borderline personality disorder from the perspective of general personality functioning

The authors extended previous work on the hypothesis that borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be understood as a maladaptive variant of personality traits included within the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality. In each of 3 samples, an empirically derived prototypic FFM borderline profile was correlated with individuals' FFM profiles to yield a similarity score, an FFM borderline index. Results across all samples indicated that the FFM borderline index correlated as highly with existing borderline measures as they correlated with one another, and the FFM borderline index correlated as highly with measures of dysfunction, history of childhood abuse, and parental psychopathology as did traditional measures of BPD. Findings support the hypothesis that BPD is a maladaptive variant of FFM personality traits.     

Consumers' implicit theories about personality influence their brand personality judgments

Three studies document that consumers' implicit theories about the fixedness/malleability of personality guide brand personality updating in a brand extension context. The first two studies show that extension fit with the parent brand impacts brand personality updating only for incremental (vs. entity theorists). Specifically, for incremental theorists, brand personality is enhanced (vs. diluted) when extension fit is poor (vs. good), and only when brand personality is salient. The third study identifies conditions under which entity theorists focus on brand personality. Interestingly, overall evaluations of the parent brand and extension vary only with extension fit. Implications of our research are discussed.     

Values and personality

Personality and differential psychology have paid little attention to values research. Consequently, the constructs used in these subdisciplines have developed independently, and evidence regarding the relations of personality to values is minimal. This study seeks to advance our understanding of these relations and to arrive at a theoretical integration of constructs. Starting from recent developments in values theory (Schwartz, 1992; Schwartz and Bilsky, 1987, 1990) and drawing on Maslow's (1955) distinction between ‘deficiency’ and ‘growth’ needs, we elaborate theoretical links between personality and values with special emphasis on structural relations. A set of hypotheses regarding these relations is generated and tested next, using data from a study with 331 German students. These students completed both the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) and the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI), measuring ten primary and two secondary personality variables, namely extraversion and emotionality. Joint Similarity Structure Analyses (SSAs) of values and personality variables were conducted. The findings reveal both meaningful and systematic associations of value priorities with personality variables, confirming the hypothesized structural relationships. The compatibility of our hypotheses with the complex findings of George (1954) using totally different indexes of both values (Allport–Vernon Study of Values) and personality (drawn from Eysenck and Guilford) further supports the theoretical connections proposed in this study.     

Addictive personality factors

This study was designed to compare mean scores obtained by alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, smokers, chronic joggers, and control subjects on six subfactors of the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale. Results indicated that some MacAndrew factors may be more sensitive to additive pathology than others. Alcoholics emerged as the most pathological group, in terms of scores on the Cognitive Impairment, Social Maladjustment, and Risk Taking scales. Gamblers and smokers appeared to be distinctly different, more socially oriented addicts. Frequency of jogging was negatively related to measures of addiction but positively related to measures of compulsiveness.