title: Personality vulnerabilities to psychopathology: relations between trait structure and affective-cognitive processes.
abstract: The present research examined (a) the relations among various affective-cognitive vulnerabilities to psychopathology, (b) the relations between vulnerabilities and dispositional traits, and (c) the mediating role of vulnerabilities between dispositional traits and psychopathological symptoms. Self-report questionnaires were administered to two independent samples in Study 1 (total N=274), whereas a longitudinal experience-sampling method was employed in Study 2 (N=100). All samples consisted of college students. Results suggested that affective-cognitive vulnerabilities showed a pattern of intercorrelations consistent with a 2-factor model representing general vulnerability to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, respectively. The vulnerabilities also revealed common and unique aspects when mapped onto the trait structure represented by the Five-Factor Model. Most important, affective-cognitive vulnerabilities were found to constitute proximal-specific mechanisms that mediated between distal-broad dispositional vulnerabilities, such as Neuroticism, and different psychopathological symptoms. Our data support a model of personality-psychopathology relations that benefits from an integration of both the dispositional trait and social-cognitive approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, 9 Arts Link, Singapore 117570. ryan.hong@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: Ryan Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Sampo V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Paunonen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires