Bruno Klopfer Award Address: Five-Factor Model Personality Disorder Scales

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Personality Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is the predominant framework for general personality structure, encompassing neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
• A persistent hypothesis suggests personality disorders represent extreme or maladaptive variations of FFM domains and facets.

Discussion:

• This article details the creation and validation of personality disorder scales based on the FFM.
• These scales evaluate the DSM-5 Section II personality disorders from the FFM perspective.
• They also assess maladaptive variants across all five FFM domains.

Key Insights:

• The FFM offers a robust structure for conceptualizing personality disorders.
• Validated FFM-based scales provide a novel method for assessing personality pathology.
• This approach bridges general personality theory with clinical disorder classification.

Outlook:

• Future research can refine these scales for enhanced diagnostic utility.
• This FFM-based framework may inform treatment development for personality disorders.
• Further validation across diverse populations will strengthen the generalizability of these findings.