Clinicians' personality descriptions of prototypic personality disorders.
Many studies have indicated close convergence of the DSM-IV personality disorders and the five-factor model (FFM) of personality functioning. However, questions have been raised concerning the ability of clinicians to describe personality disorders in terms of the FFM. This study developed a FFM description by practicing clinicians of each DSM-IV personality disorder. Clinicians rated a prototypic case of each DSM-IV personality disorder in terms of the FFM. These ratings, which achieved excellent reliability, were then averaged to produce a consensus FFM profile for each personality disorder. The consensus ratings showed good agreement with previous research that examined both researchers' and clinicians' application of the FFM to prototypic cases of personality disorders. These results suggest that clinicians can conceptualize and apply the FFM to personality disorders in a consistent way. The results further suggest that the FFM may provide a richer and more comprehensive description of personality difficulties than the current DSM-IV personality disorder categories.
Samuel
Douglas B
DB
The Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA. dbsamu2@uky.edu
Widiger
Thomas A
TA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015588:Observer Variation; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D011586:Psychology, Clinical / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States