Associations Between the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank and Measures of Personality and Psychopathology

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB; Rotter, Lah, & Rafferty, 1992) is a sentence completion test intended to detect psychological maladjustment. To investigate the construct validity of the measure, we investigated what aspects of personality and psychopathology are correlated with the RISB and also tested the incremental validity of the RISB in a combined sample of clinical (n = 72) and undergraduate participants (n = 69). Interrater reliability of the RISB was good (intraclass correlation > .80). The RISB overall adjustment score discriminated between clinical and undergraduate participants, and high scores on the RISB were associated with higher negative affect, more anxiety and depression, irrational thinking, and interpersonal problems. The incremental validity of the RISB was modest, but it did explain variance in satisfaction with life and personality disorder symptoms above and beyond an extracted measure of general psychological distress. Our findings support the construct validity of the RISB.     

Emotional Problems Suppress Disorder/Performance Associations in Adult ADHD Assessment

Issues related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are commonly assessed using a combination of indicators, including patient report and performance on cognitive tasks. The current study investigates the potential that emotional problems may suppress the relationship between objective continuous performance test (CPT) results and ADHD symptoms in a sample of 53 young adults referred to an outpatient clinic for cognitive evaluations, 26 of whom met diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Data indicate that emotional problems and continuous performance represent unique elements of adult ADHD, whether assessed via interview or self-report. Results also indicate that emotional problems do suppress CPT–ADHD relations, suggesting that failure to control for emotional problems may account, in part, for modest associations in the literature between CPT performance and other indicators of ADHD.     

The Other Self: Psychopathology and Literature

The figure of the "double" or the other self is an important topic in the history of literature. Many centuries before Jean Paul Richter coined the term, "doppelg?nger," at the beginning of the Romantic Movement in the year 1796, it is possible to find the figure of the double in myths and legends. The issue of the double emphaszses the contradictory character of the human being and invokes a sinister dimension of the psychological world, what has been called in German as "umheimlich." However, does multiciplicity always involve pathology? Related to this figure in literary history, a new perspective from clinical psychology called "dialogical self" defines the self as a multi-voice reality. Along the same line, postmodernist psychology considers the self a discursive construction. From these perspectives, the "self" is situated a long way away from the classical essential conception of the self. In this paper, we review briefly some important landmarks of the figure of the double in the literature, and we compare the coincidences of the "double" experiencies described in literature with the experiences of our patients. Finally, we discuss how this literary tradition can help us to understand new psychological perspectives.     

Associations of Lifetime Depression with Trauma Exposure,Other Environmental Adversities,and Impairment in Adolescents with ADHD

Depression is a common, potentially devastating comorbidity in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). Various environmental adversities are well-described as correlates of depression in general pediatric populations, but not in youth with ADHD. In 104 adolescents with ADHD, we examined potential environmental correlates of lifetime depression, including trauma exposure, recent negative life events and current parent-child conflict, along with current and past ADHD severity and current impairment. Controlling for demographic variables, comorbid disorders, and ADHD severity, we noted significant associations between lifetime depression and environmental adversities, including victimization trauma, parent-child conflict, and behaviorally-independent negative life events. Current impairment but not ADHD severity was also highly associated with lifetime depression, controlling for the same covariates. Findings from this preliminary, cross-sectional study suggest that environmental adversities and impairment in youth with ADHD should also be targeted along with the ADHD when contemplating strategies to treat or prevent comorbid depression.     

Suicidal Adolescents' Social Support from Family and Peers: Gender-Specific Associations with Psychopathology

Perceptions of social support from family, non-family adults, and peers were examined in relation to the psychopathology reported by 220 suicidal adolescents (152 females) during a psychiatric hospitalization. Results of regression analyses showed that, among females, family support was negatively related to hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Among males, peer support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Across gender, more peer support was associated with more externalizing behavior problems; whereas, family support was negatively related to these problems and to alcohol/substance abuse. Paralleling normative findings, age was positively associated with peer support, and females perceived more peer support than did males. Findings extend previous research on social support to suicidal adolescents, and broaden the literature by examining extrafamilial support and a broader range of relevant psychopathology. That is, perceived social support relates to psychiatric impairment differentially by gender, and normative, age-related variations in perceptions of social support are detected even among highly impaired adolescents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Personality and Psychopathology: An Application of the Five-Factor Model

Our review is concerned with the relationship of the five-factor model of personality to psychopathology, focusing in particular on Axis II personality disorders and depression. The five factors provide a particularly compelling model for interpreting the Axis II personality disorders as maladaptive variants of normal personality traits. However, we also discuss methodological and conceptual limitations of this application. There has been little research on the relationship of Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness to Axis I mental disorders, but considerable attention has been given to Neuroticism and Extraversion. We focus in particular on the difficulty in distinguishing between the various ways in which personality can relate to depression, either as a predisposition to, a complication of, a pathoplastic effect upon, or a spectrum variant of the mental disorder. We conclude with recommendations for future research.     

Longitudinal Associations Between the Five-Factor Model of Personality and The Bi-Factor Model of Psychopathology: Continuity,Pathoplasty and Complication Effects in Adolescents

The study of the bifactor structure of psychopathology, which includes a general factor of psychopathology (or p factor) in addition to the internalizing and externalizing factors, has gained attention. However, its associations with the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality has been addressed in few studies, and none has examined different plausible etiological models (i.e., continuity, pathoplasty, complication) to explain its relationship, which is the aim of the present research. Additionally, the longitudinal association of the General Factor of Personality (GFP) and the p factor will be also explored. Personality and psychopathological symptoms of high school students were assessed at three time points (once a year) (n?=?655; M?=?13.79, SD?=?1.24; 49.8% girls). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (and measurement invariance across waves) were tested for the traits, the GFP and the bifactor model of psychopathology. While the bifactor model and the one-factor solution for each personality trait displayed good fit to the data and remained invariant over time, the structure of the GFP was adequate and invariant in two of the three waves. The resulting factors were included in cross-lagged panel models and showed that the FFM traits and the psychopathology factors influenced each other reciprocally. Most associations fell in line with the continuity model, but minor pathoplastic and complication effects were also reported. Similar associations were found between the GFP and the p factor. These results suggest that interventions in riskier personality profiles might prevent the development of general and more specific psychopathology spectra.

     

Profiles of Emotion Socialization Across Development and Longitudinal Associations with Youth Psychopathology

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Although there is relative consensus in the literature regarding associations between certain emotion socialization (ES) strategies and youth...     

Personality Characteristics Associated with Persistent ADHD in Late Adolescence

This study focused on the personality characteristics associated with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a longitudinal sample of youth, with a particular focus on differences between those with and without persisting ADHD symptoms. Participants with ADHD (n = 90) were initially evaluated when they were 7–11 years old, and re-assessed at 16–22 years of age. Matched control subjects (n = 80) were recruited at the time of the follow-up evaluation. At follow-up, the Kiddie-SADS-PL, a semi-structured psychiatric interview, and the NEO-PI, a self-report personality inventory, were administered. Data were analyzed using multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). Results indicate that childhood ADHD is associated with lower scores on the NEO Conscientiousness subscale in adolescents/young adults—irrespective of the degree of ADHD persistence. In contrast, ratings of Neuroticism and Agreeableness appear to be more closely linked to adolescent status; those with persisting symptoms only exhibited increased Neuroticism and decreased Agreeableness. These results suggest that ADHD, and the degree to which symptoms persist into adolescence, may be closely linked to personality structure.     

Perceived Rejection in Personality Psychopathology: The Role of Attachment and Gender

Prior research suggests that individuals with higher rates of personality psychopathology are more likely to endorse insecure attachment patterns which can lead to stronger reactions towards perceived rejection. This study investigated how attachment style and gender moderate the strength of the association between personality psychopathology and reactions to perceived rejection. To examine the role of attachment and gender in the relationship between personality psychopathology and reactions to perceived rejection, an undergraduate sample of 150 students, as well as an Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) sample of 278 individuals, completed various personality and attachment self-report measures and watched video clips addressing rejection from parents, peers, and romantic partners. Multivariate analyses of variance and moderation effects suggested that attachment patterns inconsistently moderate maladaptive reactions to rejection, and that gender moderates the relationship between personality psychopathology and externalizing reactions to rejection. Specifically, men with more pronounced Antagonism and Psychoticism trait facets demonstrated a higher propensity towards externalizing and internalizing reactions to rejection than women in these domains.

     

Personality Characteristics and Development of Psychopathology in Bipolar I and Borderline Personality Disorder Patients

The debate whether Bipolar Affective Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder fall under the same spectrum or they represent separate categories has received much research attention. However, the question of their underlying psychological aetiology as well as their personality correlates has remained largely un-explored. The present study aims at gaining knowledge about and insights into these questions. The sample studied consists of 10 Bipolar I patients and 10 patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Following a cross-sectional design, after determining the remitted phase of Bipolar I patients using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Young’s Mania Rating Scale, the Temperament and Character Inventory, Attachment Style Questionnaire, Defense Style Questionnaire and Rorschach Inkblot Test were administered individually by the researcher. Both group of patients showed features of immaturity and instability. A correlational analysis indicated the probable pathway of development of psychopathology. The parallels of the findings to Kernberg’s concept of borderline personality organization have been discussed.     

Personality Assessment With Children of Superior Intelligence: Divergence Versus Psychopathology

The perceptual and cognitive functioning of children with intelligence quotients > 135 was examined with the Rorschach Inkblot Test. A criterion measure, the Child Behavior Checklist, was also administered so as to determine whether deviations for Rorschach variables from age-appropriate norms indicated the presence of psychopathology or were evidence of nonentrenched, novel, or creative styles of encoding and processing information. Rorschach variables indicative of intellectual sophistication, nonentrenched thinking or inaccurate testily perception, and cognitive slippage were reliably elevated for this sample versus norms. Results for the Child Behavior Checklist demonstrated that the incidence of psychopathology in the intellectually superior and average samples were comparable. There was a lack of covariance between Rorschach markers of inaccurate reality perception, cognitive slippages, and schizophrenia, and the sum of behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist. Results for the Rorschach and Child Behavior Checklist variables were comparable for children with intelligence quotients > 150 versus between 136 and 140. It was concluded that the intellectually superior children did process the Rorschach stimuli in a manner that was nonentrenched and reliably different from norms, but that these differences should not routinely be considered as indications of psychopathology.     

Cognitive and Affective Representations of People and MCMI--II Personality Psychopathology

Hibbard, Hilsenroth, Hibbard, and Wash (1995) found that affective, but not cognitive, dimensions of object representations were related to the severity of psychopathology among outpatients. In this study, the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (Westen, Barends, Leigh, Mendel, & Silbert, 1990) developed for interview data (Relationship Episodes; Luborsky,l990) was used to assess the object representations of 33 men and 38 women entering psychotherapy. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II was used to assess the personality traits of the 71 participants. The results support earlier findings that only affective dimensions of object representations are related to outpatient personality pathology.