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Experimental manipulation of NEO-PI-R items
1Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA.
Journal of Personality Assessment
|November 6, 2001
Summary
This study modified personality inventory items to better capture maladaptive traits. The revised measures successfully linked the Five-factor model (FFM) of personality to personality disorder symptoms, supporting the hypothesis.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Personality Psychology
Background:
- The Five-factor model (FFM) of personality is widely used to understand personality traits.
- Previous research found inconsistencies between FFM scales and specific personality disorder symptoms using the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R).
- Specifically, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness scales did not correlate as expected with obsessive-compulsive, dependent, and schizotypal symptoms, respectively.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the emphasis on adaptive traits in the NEO-PI-R contributed to previous inconsistencies.
- To test the hypothesis that altering items to focus on maladaptive variants would yield expected correlations between FFM traits and personality disorder symptomatology.
Main Methods:
- Experimentally modified items from the NEO-PI-R to reverse their focus from adaptive to maladaptive personality functioning.
- Administered the altered NEO-PI-R to a sample of 86 adult psychiatric outpatients.
- Analyzed the correlations between the FFM domains and personality disorder symptoms using the modified items.
Main Results:
- The modified NEO-PI-R items successfully confirmed the theoretically predicted associations between FFM personality domains and personality disorder symptomatology.
- This suggests that the original NEO-PI-R's emphasis on adaptive traits may have obscured these relationships.
- The study demonstrated the utility of assessing maladaptive personality variants for understanding personality pathology.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the hypothesis that the original NEO-PI-R's focus on adaptive personality traits may explain previous failures to confirm expected links with personality disorder symptoms.
- Modifying personality inventory items to target maladaptive variants can enhance the assessment of personality disorder symptomatology.
- This research provides a refined approach to understanding the complex relationship between personality structure and psychopathology.
