Oddity, Schizotypy/Dissociation, and Personality

Tracking variations in daily questionable health behaviors and their psychological roots: a preregistered experience sampling study

People resort to various questionable health practices to preserve or regain health - they intentionally do not adhere to medical recommendations (e.g. self-medicate or modify the prescribed therapies; iNAR), or use traditional/complementary/alternative (TCAM) medicine. As retrospective reports overestimate adherence and suffer from recall and desirability bias, we tracked the variations in daily questionable health behaviors and compared them to their retrospectively reported lifetime use. We also preregistered and explored their relations to a wide set of psychological predictors - distal (personality traits and basic thinking dispositions) and proximal (different unfounded beliefs and biases grouped under the term irrational mindset). A community sample (N = 224) tracked daily engagement in iNAR and TCAM use for 14 days, resulting in 3136 data points. We observed a high rate of questionable health practices over the 14 days; daily engagement rates roughly corresponded to lifetime ones. Both iNAR and TCAM were weakly, but robustly positively related. Independent of the assessment method, an irrational mindset was the most important predictor of TCAM use. For iNAR, however, psychological predictors emerged as relevant only when assessed retrospectively. Our study offers insight into questionable health behaviors from both a within and between-person perspective and highlights the importance of their psychological roots.

Proneness to psychotic-like experiences as a basic personality trait complementing the HEXACO model-A preregistered cross-national study

The goal of the study is to investigate the relationship between the HEXACO personality model and Disintegration-representing a broad spectrum of psychotic-like experiences and behavioral tendencies (Perceptual Distortions, General Executive/Cognitive Impairment, Enhanced Awareness, Paranoia, Mania, Flattened Affect, Apathy/Depression, Somatoform Dysregulation, and Magical Thinking) that are reconceptualized as a personality trait. In this preregistered study, we predicted that the Disintegration factor would separate from HEXACO. The replicability of the factorial structures of HEXACO and Disintegration subcomponents is investigated across the three national samples (UK, Germany, and Serbia), matched on key socio-demographic variables. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) is used to study the invariance of the hypothesized seven-factor structure (six HEXACO plus Disintegration). Support for the metric invariance of the seven-factor structure based on HEXACO and Disintegration subcomponents/facets across the three nations was found. The Disintegration factor lied outside the HEXACO personality space with each of its nine subcomponents. The Disintegration factor appeared to be among the most coherent and replicable of the seven across the samples and units of measurement (facets and items). A broad spectrum of psychotic-like experiences/behavioral tendencies relevant in understanding and explaining many aspects of everyday and long-term (mal)adaptations is not captured by the HEXACO model.

The meaning of momentary psychotic-like experiences in a non-clinical sample: A personality perspective

The relationships between Momentary Psychotic-Like Experiences (MPLEs) and HEXACO—complemented by the proneness to PLEs conceptualized as a basic personality trait (Disintegration), and a maladaptive trait (PID-5 Psychoticism)—were investigated in a prospective study that includes experience-sampling methodology (ESM). The main goal was to investigate whether MPLEs are better predicted by HEXACO or measures of the dispositional proneness to PLEs. A sample of 180 participants assessed MPLEs and affective states they experienced in the previous two hours, twice per day, with semi-randomly set assessment time-points, during seven days, by using ESM. Personality inventories were administered 1–2 months earlier. MPLEs were better predicted by the measures of dispositional tendencies toward PLEs than by the HEXACO, no matter whether it was broadly defined as the nine-faceted general tendency toward PLEs (Disintegration), or narrowly as three-faceted positive psychotic-like symptoms of maladaptive personality tendencies (PID-5—Psychoticism).

Originality in online dating profile texts: How does perceived originality affect impression formation and what makes a text original?

This paper investigates origins and consequences of perceived profile text originality. The first goal was to examine whether the perceived originality of authentic online dating profile texts affects online daters' perceptions of attractiveness, and whether perceptions of (less) desired partner personality traits mediate this effect. Results showed the positive impact of perceived profile text originality on impression formation: text originality positively affects perceptions of intelligence and sense of humor, which improve impressions of attractiveness and boost dating intention. The second goal was to explore what profile text features increase perceptions of profile text originality. Results revealed profile texts which were stylistically original (e.g., include metaphors) and contained more and concrete self-disclosure statements were considered more original, explaining almost half of the variance in originality scores. Taken together, our results suggest that perceived originality in profile texts is manifested in both meaning and form, and is a balancing act between novelty and appropriateness.

On the Comparability of Basic Personality Models: Meta-Analytic Correspondence, Scope, and Orthogonality of the Big Five and HEXACO Dimensions

Models of basic personality structure are among the most widely used frameworks in psychology and beyond, and they have considerably advanced the understanding of individual differences in a plethora of consequential outcomes. Over the past decades, two such models have become most widely used: the Five Factor Model (FFM) or Big Five, respectively, and the HEXACO Model of Personality. However, there is no large-scale empirical evidence on the general comparability of these models. Here, we provide the first comprehensive meta-analysis on (a) the correspondence of the FFM/Big Five and HEXACO dimensions, (b) the scope of trait content the models cover, and (c) the orthogonality (i.e., degree of independence) of dimensions within the models. Results based on 152 (published and unpublished) samples and 6,828 unique effects showed that the HEXACO dimensions incorporate notable conceptual differences compared to the FFM/Big Five dimensions, resulting in a broader coverage of the personality space and less redundancy between dimensions. Moreover, moderator analyses revealed substantial differences between operationalizations of the FFM/Big Five. Taken together, these findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the understanding of basic personality dimensions and their assessment.

Comparing Five Sets of Five–Factor Model Personality Disorder Counts in a Heterogeneous Sample of Psychiatric Patients

The research agenda for DSM–5 emphasizes the implementation of dimensional trait models into the classification of personality disorders (PDs). However, because assessment psychologists may still want to recover the traditional DSM–IV categories, researchers developed a count technique that uses sums of selected Five–Factor Model facets to assess the DSM–IV PDs. The presented study examined the convergent and divergent validity of different linear combinations of trait facets to describe specific DSM–IV PDs in a heterogeneous clinical sample (N = 155) with sufficient prevalence of all PDs, using semi–structured interviews to obtain all diagnostic information, and comparing alternative counts from five different sources for each PD. The results show that none of the schizotypal, antisocial, and dependent counts succeeded in combining good convergent with adequate divergent validity. However, the original counts could be optimized for five of the seven remaining PDs by using alternative Five–Factor Model prototypes. The diagnostic and taxonomic implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dissociation as a disorder of integration - On the footsteps of Pierre Janet

At the end of the 19th century Pierre Janet described dissociation as an altered state of consciousness manifested in disrupted integration of psychological functions. Clinically, such disruption comprises compartmentalization symptoms like amnesia, detachment symptoms like depersonalization/derealization, and structural dissociation of personality with changes in the sense of self. The exact neuronal mechanisms leading to these different symptoms remain unclear. We here suggest to put Janet's original account of dissociation as disrupted integration of psychological functions into a novel context, that is, a neuronal context as related to current brain imaging. This requires a combined theoretical and empirical approach on data supporting such neuronal reframing of Janet. For that, we here review (i) past and (ii) recent psychological and neuronal views on dissociation together with neuroscientific theories of integration, which (iii) are supported and complemented by preliminary fMRI data. We propose three neuronal mechanisms of dynamic integration operating at different levels of the brain's spontaneous activity - temporo-spatial binding on the regional level, temporo-spatial synchronization on the network level, and temporo-spatial globalization on the global level. These neuronal mechanisms, in turn, may be related to different symptomatic manifestation of dissociation operating at different levels, e.g., compartmentalization, detachment, and structural, which, as we suggest, can all be traced to disrupted integration of neuronal and psychological functions as originally envisioned by Janet.

Recovering the HEXACO Personality Factors – and Psychoticism – From Variable Sets Assessing Normal and Abnormal Personality

Abstract. We examined the joint factor structure of the 30 facets of the NEO Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO-PI-R; or the NEO-PI-3) with either (a) the 25 facets of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) or (b) the 15 facets of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) plus several dissociation scales, using self-reports from participant samples of previous research. The NEO-PI-R[3]/PID-5 variable set produced seven factors that represented the HEXACO factor space plus a “psychoticism” dimension. The NEO-PI-R/SNAP/dissociation variable set produced a similar set of seven factors. The results indicate that even some questionnaire variable sets not constructed to measure the HEXACO factors can recover those personality dimensions. Researchers interested in integrating the domains of normal and abnormal personality are advised to adopt a model consisting of six HEXACO-like dimensions plus a dimension of psychotic tendency.

The Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) from the Perspective of the Five-Factor Model

The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. Washington: American Psychiatric Association; 2013) includes an Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD). The AMPD includes two components: the Criterion A level of personality functioning (i.e., impairments or deficits in the sense of self and interpersonal relatedness) and the Criterion B five-domain maladaptive trait model. The purpose of the current paper is to discuss the AMPD from the perspective of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of general personality structure. The conclusion of this review is that both the Criterion A self-other deficits and the Criterion B traits can be understood as maladaptive variants of the FFM.

FFMPD scales: Comparisons with the FFM, PID-5, and CAT-PD-SF

A series of 8 Five Factor Model Personality Disorder (FFMPD) scales have been developed to assess, from the perspective of the Five Factor Model (FFM), the maladaptive traits included within DSM-5 Section II personality disorders. An extensive body of FFMPD research has accumulated. However, for the most part, each study has been confined to the scales within 1 particular FFMPD Inventory. The current study considered 36 FFMPD scales, at least 1 from each of the 8 FFMPD inventories, including 8 scales considered to be from neuroticism, 8 from extraversion, 5 from openness, 8 from agreeableness, and 7 from conscientiousness. Their convergent, discriminant, and structural relationship with the FFM was considered, and compared with the structural relationship with the FFM obtained by the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) and the Computerized Adaptive Test-Personality Disorder-Static Form (CAT-PD-SF). Support for an FFM structure was obtained (albeit with agreeableness defining 1 factor and antagonism a separate factor). Similarities and differences across the FFMPD, PID-5, and CAT-PD-SF scales were highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record

PTSD and depressive symptoms are linked to DHEAS via personality

BACKGROUND

Research results on dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate ester (DHEAS) in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are inconsistent. We hypothesized that personality traits could be the confounders of DHEAS levels and disease symptoms, which could in part explain the discrepancy in findings.

METHOD

This study was a part of a broader project in which simultaneous psychological and biological investigations were carried out in hospital conditions. 380 male subjects were categorized in four groups: A) current PTSD (n = 132), B) lifetime PTSD (n = 66), C) trauma controls (n = 101), and D) healthy controls (n = 81), matched by age.

RESULTS

The level of DHEAS is significantly lower in the current PTSD group than in trauma controls. All groups significantly differ in personality traits Disintegration and Neuroticism (current PTSD group having the highest scores). DHEAS is related to both PTSD and depressive symptoms; however, Structural Equation Model (SEM) shows that the relations are indirect, realized via their confounder - personality trait Disintegration.

CONCLUSIONS

According to our project results, DHEAS is the second putative biomarker for trauma-related disorders that fails to fulfil this expectation. It appears to be more directly related to personality than to the disease symptoms (the first one being basal cortisol). Our data promote personality as a biologically based construct with seemingly important role in understanding the mental health status.

The Conceptualization and Assessment of Schizotypal Traits: A Comparison of the FFSI and PID-5

The purpose of the present study was to compare the cognitive and perceptual aberration scales from the Five-Factor Schizotypal Inventory (FFSI; Edmundson, Lynam, Miller, Gore, & Widiger, 2011) and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol,, 2012), as well as to address more generally the validity of the FFSI as a measure of both schizotypal personality traits and the FFM. Two independent samples were obtained, including 259 college students (55 of whom were preselected with elevated scores on a measure of schizotypal personality disorder [STPD]) and 346 adult MTurk participants (43% of whom had been or were currently in mental health treatment). Administered were the FFSI, the PID-5 Psychoticism scales, and alternative measures of general personality, openness, STPD, and schizotypal cognitive-perceptual aberrations. The results of the study are discussed with respect to the validity of the FFSI and PID-5 schizotypal cognitive and perception scales.

Disintegration as an Additional Trait in the Psychobiological Model of Personality

Abstract. This meta-analytic study investigates the relations between Disintegration-like phenomena (i.e., various aspects of symptomatology with the prefix “schizo-,” both at the clinical and the subclinical level) and the traits of the Psychobiological Model of Personality (PBMP). The empirically based benchmark for assuming the distinctness of the trait Disintegration was .30. The sample included 26 manuscripts with 30 studies and 424 effect sizes. By computing inverse sampling variance weighted mean correlation coefficients under a random-effects assumption, the following associations were found between Disintegration and Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence, Persistence, Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-Transcendence: .23, .04, −.15, −.02, −.23, −.16, and .17, respectively. Two variables were found to moderate the Disintegration-Self-Transcendence correlation. Despite the theoretical expectation and some empirical evidence that Self-Transcendence (and other character traits) should capture variations in Disintegration-like phenomena, our results suggest that schizo-type phenomena are not adequately covered by the PBMP.

Openness to experience, intellect, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychoticism: resolving the controversy

Section III of DSM-5 includes an alternative model for personality disorders comprising five higher-order pathological personality traits, four of which resemble domains from the Big Five/Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM). There has, however, been considerable debate regarding the association of FFM Openness-to-Experience/Intellect (OE/I) with DSM-5 Psychoticism and Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD). The authors identify several limitations in the literature, including inattention to (a) differences in the conceptualization of OE/I in the questionnaire and lexical traditions and (b) the symptom heterogeneity of STPD. They then address these limitations in two large patient samples. The results suggest that OE/I per se is weakly associated with Psychoticism and STPD symptoms. However, unique variance specific to the different conceptualizations of OE/I demonstrates much stronger associations, often in opposing directions. These results clarify the debate and the seemingly discrepant views that OE/I is unrelated to Psychoticism and contains variance relevant to Psychoticism.

[Stress-induced dissociation in the trajectory of schizotypal personality disorder (on the model of nosogenias in oncologic patients)]

OBJECTIVE

Stress-induced dissociative disorders (DD) have high prevalence in psychiatry and general medicine but the psychopathological differentiation of DD and contribution of personality disorders in their development is less studied. Authors conducted a clinical analysis of stress-induced persistent DD and underlying constitutional abnormalities.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

It was examined 20 patients with DD induced by the stress caused by a cancer diagnosis, including 10 patients of detachment-dissociation group (denial of the disease, non-compliance) and 10 patients with compartment-dissociation (complete or partial detachment of stress response components (emotional, cognitive), adequate compliancy). The groups were matched for demographic and cancer characteristics. Clinical and psychological methods were used.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

DD are secondary psychopathological phenomena. Detachment-dissociation develops in the frames of schizophrenic nosogenic reactions based on overvalued ideas of somatic well-being (or complete recovery from cancer) and has some similarities to schizotypal personality disorder. Compartment-dissociation develops within the limits of neurotic nosogenic reactions on the basis of binary psychogenic complexes - pathology of the imagination ("the beautiful indifference") concomitant to anxiety about the real illness and is similar to hysterical personality spectrum.

The role of the DSM-5 personality trait model in moving toward a quantitative and empirically based approach to classifying personality and psychopathology

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) represents a watershed moment in the history of official psychopathology classification systems because it is the first DSM to feature an empirically based model of maladaptive personality traits. Attributes of patients with personality disorders were discussed by the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group and then operationalized and refined in the course of an empirical project that eventuated in the construction of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). We review research to date on the DSM-5 trait model, with a primary aim of discussing how this kind of research could serve to better tether the DSM to data as it continues to evolve. For example, studies to date suggest that the DSM-5 trait model provides reasonable coverage of personality pathology but also suggest areas for continued refinement. This kind of research provides a way of evolving psychopathology classification on the basis of research evidence as opposed to clinical authority.

Further evidence for the fifth higher trait of personality pathology: a correlation study using normal and disordered personality measures

Studies between disordered personality and the Big-Five or the Alternative Five-Factor model of normal personality have consistently shown four higher traits. The fifth higher trait, relating to Openness to Experience or Impulsive Sensation Seeking was less supported. The culture-free Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire (NPQ) might help us to characterise the fifth higher trait. We therefore tried the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP), the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ) and the NPQ in 253 healthy participants. Our results yielded five factors, four of which resembled the previous ones. The fifth one, namely Peculiarity Seeking, was defined by NPQ and NEO-PI-R Openness to Experience, ZKPQ Impulsive Sensation Seeking and DAPP Stimulus Seeking. Whether the fifth factor is linked to the schizotypal personality disorder as proposed remains unanswered.

The maladaptive personality traits of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) in relation to the HEXACO personality factors and schizotypy/dissociation

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), a new measure of maladaptive personality traits, has recently been developed by the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Workgroup. The PID-5 variables were examined within the seven-factor space defined by the six HEXACO factors and the Schizotypy/Dissociation factor (Ashton & Lee, 2012) using participant samples from Canada (N = 378) and the Netherlands (N = 476). Extension analyses showed that several PID-5 facet-level scales represented each of the Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Schizotypy/Dissociation factors. In contrast, only one PID-5 scale loaded strongly on HEXACO Agreeableness, and no PID-5 scales loaded strongly on Openness to Experience. In addition, a joint factor analysis involving the PID-5 variables and facets of the Five-Factor Model was conducted in the Canadian sample and recovered a set of seven factors corresponding rather closely to the HEXACO factors plus Schizotypy/Dissociation. The authors discuss implications for the assessment and structure of normal and abnormal personality.