Personality traits and maladaptivity: Unipolarity versus bipolarity

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Dimensional personality trait models offer an alternative to categorical personality disorder diagnoses.
• A key debate concerns whether personality traits are maladaptive at one extreme (unipolar) or both extremes (maladaptively bipolar).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between personality traits and dysfunction.
• To determine if personality traits are unipolar or maladaptively bipolar.

Main Methods:

• Examined linear and nonlinear relations between personality traits and dysfunction in 365 psychiatric patients.
• Assessed normal-range and pathological personality domains, life satisfaction, interpersonal problems, and psychosocial functioning via self-report and interviews.

Main Results:

• All personality traits showed moderate to strong correlations with at least one dysfunction variable.
• Traits were predominantly linked to dysfunction at a single pole, suggesting unipolar maladaptivity.
• Limited evidence suggested maladaptivity associated with high Extraversion and Agreeableness; no clear nonlinear effects supported bipolar maladaptivity.

Conclusions:

• Broad personality traits are primarily maladaptive at one extreme.
• In specific instances, the opposite extreme of a personality trait may also contribute to maladaptivity.