Measuring disordered personality functioning: to love and to work reprised.
OBJECTIVE
Current limitations to diagnosing and measuring the personality disorders encouraged a set of studies seeking to provide an alternate approach to modeling and measuring disordered personality function.


METHODS
A large set of self-reported descriptors of disordered personality function were factor analyzed in a sample of patients with clinician-diagnosed personality dysfunction, generating 11 lower-order and two higher-order constructs. Subjects and non-clinical controls also completed a measure of personality styles underpinning formalized personality disorder groupings. Properties of the refined self-report (SR) measure were assessed in an independent sample of patients with a clinically diagnosed personality disorder.


RESULTS
Limitations in 'cooperativeness' and 'coping' formed the higher-order constructs defining disordered personality function, with these constructs relevant to all personality styles. Analyses of SR, corroborative witness (CW) and clinician-rated data in an independent sample supported measuring disordered personality function by our derived 20-item SR measure, and exposed limitations to clinician-based assessment.


CONCLUSIONS
Study findings build to a multi-axial strategy for measuring personality disorder, involving separate dimensional assessment of both disordered personality function and of personality style.
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Mood Disorders Unit, Black Dog Institute, Syndey, Australia. g.parker@unsw.edu.au
G
G
Parker
D
D
Hadzi-Pavlovic
L
L
Both
S
S
Kumar
K
K
Wilhelm
A
A
Olley
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires