Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T09:25:57.264Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The construct validity of general and specific dimensions of personality pathology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2017

T. F. Williams ,
M. D. Scalco  and
L. J. Simms
T. F. Williams*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA
M. D. Scalco
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA
L. J. Simms
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: T. F. Williams, Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Park Hall 226, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. (Email: tfwillia@buffalo.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Modern personality disorder (PD) theory and research attempt to distinguish transdiagnostic impairments common to all PDs from constructs that explain varied PD expression. Bifactor modeling tests such distinctions; however, the only published PD criteria bifactor analysis focused on only 6 PDs and did not examine the model's construct validity.

Methods

We examined the structure and construct validity of competing PD criteria models using confirmatory and exploratory factor analytic methods in 628 patients who completed structured diagnostic interviews and self-reports of personality traits and impairment.

Results

Relative to alternative models, two bifactor models – one confirmatory model with 10 specific factors for each PD (acceptable fit) and one exploratory model with four specific factors resembling broad personality domains (excellent fit) – fit best and were compared via connections with external criteria. General and specific factors related meaningfully and differentially to personality traits, internalizing symptoms, substance use, and multiple indices of psychosocial impairment. As hypothesized, the general factor predicted interpersonal dysfunction above and beyond other psychopathology. The general factor also correlated strongly with many pathological personality traits.

Conclusions

The present study supported the validity of a model with both a general PD impairment dimension and separate individual difference dimensions; however, it also indicated that currently prominent models, which assume general PD impairments and personality traits are non-overlapping, may be misspecified.

Keywords

Personality disorderstraitspsychopathologydysfunctionbifactor model
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 48 , Issue 5 , April 2018 , pp. 834 - 848
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC, USA.Google Scholar
Asparouhov, T, Muthén, BO (2010). Weighted Least Squares Estimation with Missing Data. Technical Report (http://www.statmodel.com/download/GstrucMissingRevision.pdf).Google Scholar
Bach, B, Lee, C, Mortensen, EL, Simonsen, E (2016). How do DSM-5 personality traits align with schema therapy constructs. Journal of Personality Disorders 30, 502–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bastiaansen, L, De Fruyt, F, Rossi, G, Schotte, C, Hofmans, J (2013). Personality disorder dysfunction versus traits: structural and conceptual issues. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 4, 293–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bastiaansen, L, Hopwood, CJ, Van den Broeck, J, Rossi, G, Schotte, C, De Fruyt, F (2016). The twofold diagnosis of personality disorder: how do personality dysfunction and pathological traits increment each other at successive levels of the trait hierarchy? Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 7, 280–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bender, DS, Morey, LC, Skodol, AE (2011). Toward a model for assessing level of personality functioning in DSM-5, part I: a review of theory and methods. Journal of Personality Assessment 93, 332–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berghuis, H, Kamphuis, JH, Verheul, R (2012). Core features of personality disorder: differentiating general personality dysfunctioning from personality traits. Journal of Personality Disorders 26, 704–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bonifay, W, Lane, SP, Reise, SP (2017). Three concerns with applying a bifactor model as a structure of psychopathology. Clinical Psychological Science 5, 184–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspi, A, Houts, RM, Belsky, DW, Goldman-Mellor, SJ, Harrington, H, Israel, S, Meier, MH, Ramrakha, S, Shalev, I, Poulton, R, Moffit, TE (2014). The p factor: one general psychopathology factor in the structure of psychiatric disorders? Clinical Psychological Science 2, 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, GW, Rensvold, RB (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling 9, 233–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, LA (2007). Assessment and diagnosis of personality disorder: perennial issues and an emerging reconceptualization. Annual Review of Psychology 58, 227–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, LA, Ro, E (2014). Three-pronged assessment and diagnosis of personality disorder and its consequences: personality functioning, pathological traits, and psychosocial disability. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 5, 55–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conway, CC, Hammen, C, Brennan, PA (2015). Optimizing prediction of psychosocial and clinical outcomes with a transdiagnostic model of personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders 29, 1–22.Google Scholar
Crowell, SE, Beauchaine, TP, Linehan, MM (2009). A biosocial developmental model of borderline personality: elaborating and extending Linehan's theory. Psychological Bulletin 135, 495–510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeYoung, CG, Quilty, LC, Peterson, JB (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93, 880–896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E, Emmons, RA, Larsen, RJ, Griffin, S (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment 49, 71–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Few, LR, Miller, JD, Rothbaum, AO, Meller, S, Maples, J, Terry, DP, Collins, B, MacKillop, J (2013). Examination of the section III DSM-5 diagnostic system for personality disorders in an outpatient clinical sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 122, 1057–1069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, M, Williams, JW (1995). The structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R personality disorders (SCID-II): I. Description. Journal of Personality Disorders 9, 83–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopwood, CJ, Malone, JC, Ansell, EB, Sanislow, CA, Grilo, CM (2011). Personality assessment in DSM-5: empirical support for rating severity, style, and traits. Journal of Personality Disorders 25, 305–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopwood, CJ, Wright, AGC, Ansell, EB, Pincus, AL (2013). The interpersonal core of personality pathology. Journal of Personality Disorders 27, 270–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, LT, Bentler, PM (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling 6, 1–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jahng, S, Trull, TJ, Wood, PK, Tragesser, SL, Tomko, R, Grant, JD, Bucholz, KK, Sher, KJ (2011). Distinguishing general and specific personality disorder features and implications for substance dependence comorbidity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 120, 656–669.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jennrich, RI, Bentler, PM (2011). Exploratory bi-factor analysis. Psychometrika 76, 537–549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jennrich, RI, Bentler, PM (2012). Exploratory bi-factor analysis: the oblique case. Psychometrika 77, 442–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kotov, R, Ruggero, CJ, Krueger, RF, Watson, D, Yuan, Q, Zimmeran, M (2011). New dimensions in the quantitative classification of mental illness. Archives of General Psychiatry 68, 1003–1011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krueger, RF, Derringer, R, Markon, KE, Watson, D, Skodol, AE (2012). Initial construction of a maladaptive personality trait model and inventory for DSM-5. Psychological Medicine 42, 1879–1890.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krueger, RF, Hopwood, CJ, Wright, AGC, Markon, KE (2014). DSM-5 and the path toward an empirically based and clinically useful conceptualization of personality and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 21, 245–261.Google Scholar
Morey, LC, Berghuis, H, Bender, DS, Verheul, R, Krueger, RF, Skodol, AE (2011). Toward a model for assessing level of personality functioning in DSM-5, part II: Empirical articulation of a core dimension of personality pathology. Journal of Personality Assessment 93, 347–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muthén, LK, Muthén, BO (2012). Mplus User's Guide, 7th edn. Muthén & Muthén: Los Angeles, CA, USA.Google Scholar
Reise, SP, Moore, TM, Haviland, MG (2010). Bifactor models and rotations: exploring the extent to which multidimensional data yield univocal scale scores. Journal of Personality Assessment 92, 544–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ro, E, Clark, LA (2009). Psychosocial functioning in the context of diagnosis: assessment and theoretical issues. Psychological Assessment 21, 313–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schafer, JL, Graham, JW (2002). Missing data: our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods 7, 147–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Semerari, A, Colle, L, Pellecchia, G, Buccione, I, Carcione, A, Dimaggio, G, Nicolò, G, Procacci, M, Pedone, R (2014). Metacognitive dysfunctions in personality disorders: correlations with disorder severity and personality styles. Journal of Personality Disorders 28, 751–766.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharp, C, Wright, AGC, Fowler, CJ, Frueh, CB, Allen, JG, Oldham, J, Clark, LA (2015). The structure of personality pathology: both general (‘g’) and specific (‘s’) factors? Journal of Abnormal Psychology 124, 387–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheehan, DV, Lecrubier, Y, Sheehan, KH, Amorim, P, Janavs, J, Weiller, E, Hergueta, T, Baker, R, Dunbar, GC (1998). The mini-international neuropsychiatric interview (M.I.N.I.): the development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 59, 22–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Simms, LJ, Prisciandaro, JJ, Krueger, RF, Goldberg, DP (2012). The structure of depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms in primary care. Psychological Medicine 42, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soldz, S, Budman, S, Demby, A, Merry, J (1995). A short form of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales. Assessment 2, 53–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepp, SD, Hallquist, MN, Morse, JQ, Pilkonis, PA (2011). Multimethod investigation of interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 2, 175–192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Üstün, TB, Chatterji, S, Kostanjsek, N, Rehm, J, Kennedy, C, Epping-Jordan, J, Saxena, S, von Korff, M, Pull, C (2010). Developing the World Health Organization disability assessment schedule. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 88, 815–823.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, TF, Simms, LJ (2016). Personality disorder models and their coverage of interpersonal problems. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment 7, 15–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, AGC, Hopwood, CJ, Skodol, AE, Morey, LC (2016). Longitudinal validation of general and specific structural features of personality pathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 126, 1120–1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, AGC, Thomas, KM, Hopwood, CJ, Markon, KE, Pincus, AL, Krueger, RF (2012). The hierarchical structure of DSM-5 pathological personality traits. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 121, 951–957.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zimmerman, J, Böhnke, JR, Eschstruth, R, Mathews, A, Wenzel, K, Leising, D (2015). The latent structure of personality functioning: Investigating Criterion A from the alternative model for personality disorders in DSM-5. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 124, 532–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, M, Rothschild, L, Chelminski, I (2005). The prevalence of DSM-IV personality disorders in psychiatric outpatients. American Journal of Psychiatry 162, 1911–1918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed