Substance and Evaluation in Personality Disorder Diagnoses

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Personality disorder (PD) diagnoses involve assessing target person characteristics (substance) and perceiver evaluations.
• Brunswik's lens model provides a framework for understanding judgment processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically account for substance and evaluation in PD diagnoses.
• To analyze the influence of evaluation and social desirability in the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders (AMPD).

Main Methods:

• Utilized a modified Brunswik lens model.
• Conducted an empirical study on AMPD items.

Main Results:

• AMPD items are significantly saturated with evaluation.
• Evaluation in AMPD items closely aligns with social desirability.
• AMPD's mandatory components (criterion A and B) show limited distinguishability regarding evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Conceptual clarity in PD diagnostics can be enhanced by differentiating personality dispositions from their consequences.
• Recommendations are provided for improving the conceptual clarity of PD diagnostics.