Personality differences between eating-disordered women and a nonclinical comparison sample: a discriminant classification analysis

The present study evaluated the extent to which eating-disordered and nonclinical comparison samples could be differentiated on self-reported personality measures of autonomy and sociotropy and a projective measure of dependency. Sixty-two women meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorder and a nonpsychiatric comparison group of 62 women completed the autonomy and sociotropy subscales of the Personal Style Inventory-II and the Rorschach Oral Dependency Scale (ROD). A discriminant classification analysis indicated 85.5% of eating-disordered subjects and 88.7% of control subjects were identified accurately from their scores on autonomy, sociotropy. and ROD. Results suggest that the experience of eating disorders is associated with a mixed clinical presentation characterized by issues related to sociotropy-dependency, and especially, achievement-related vulnerabilities. Potentially fruitful areas for future study include assessing the utility of autonomy and sociotropy as predictors of eating disturbances in prospective research and evaluating their utility in predicting treatment prognosis among patients with eating disorders.