Personality (Dys)Function and General Instability

Pathological personality domains and punishment-enhanced error-related negativity

The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential that is observed after the commission of an error and is hypothesized to index threat sensitivity. The ERN is associated with multiple psychiatric disorders, but it is unclear if similar results are due to higher-order dimensions of psychopathology. When errors are punished, the ERN is further enhanced, which might better isolate threat sensitivity. However, few studies have examined whether psychopathology is associated with punishment enhancement of the ERN. In a clinical sample of 170 adults, the present study examined the association between pathological personality domains and predictable vs. unpredictable punishment-enhanced ERN. Results indicated that the ERN was enhanced when errors were punished compared to not punished. Greater negative emotionality was associated with a greater predictable punishment-enhanced ERN, while greater disinhibition was associated with smaller predictable punishment-enhanced ERN. The study suggests that higher-order pathological personality domains demonstrate discriminate relationships with punishment-enhanced error-related brain activity.

Examining the role of personality functioning in a hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology using two years of ambulatory assessed data

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) arranges phenotypes of mental disorders based on empirical covariation, ranging from narrowly defined symptoms to higher-order spectra of psychopathology. Since the introduction of personality functioning (PF) in DSM-5 and ICD-11, several studies have identified PF as a predictor of transdiagnostic aspects of psychopathology. However, the role of PF in the HiTOP classification system has not been systematically examined. This study investigates how PF can be integrated into HiTOP, whether PF accounts for transdiagnostic variance captured in higher-order spectra, and how its predictive value for future affective well-being (AWB) and psychosocial impairment (PSI) compares to the predictive value of specific psychopathology beyond PF. To this end, we examined two years of ambulatory assessed data on psychopathology, PF, PSI, and AWB of N = 27,173 users of a mental health app. Results of bass-ackwards analyses largely aligned with the current HiTOP working model. Using bifactor modeling, aspects of PF were identified to capture most of the internalizing, thought disorder, and externalizing higher-order factor variance. In longitudinal prediction analyses employing bifactor-(S-1) modeling, PF explained 58.6% and 30.6% of variance in PSI and AWB when assessed across one year, respectively, and 33.1% and 23.2% of variance when assessed across two years. Results indicate that personality functioning may largely account for transdiagnostic variance captured in the higher-order components in HiTOP as well as longitudinal outcomes of PSI and AWB. Clinicians and their patients may benefit from assessing PF aspects such as identity problems or internal relationship models in a broad range of mental disorders. Further, incorporating measures of PF may advance research in biological psychiatry by providing empirically sound phenotypes.

Personality Pathology and Momentary Stress Processes

The expression of personality pathology differs between people and within a person in day-to-day life. Personality pathology may reflect, in part, dysregulation in basic behavioral processes. Thus, a useful approach for studying maladaptive trait expression comes from literature on stress and daily hassles, which provide dynamic accounts for the relations between individual differences and maladaptive dysregulation. This study sought to integrate maladaptive traits and dynamic stress processes to further dynamic models of personality pathology. In a combined clinical/community sample (N=297) oversampled for interpersonal problems, we used ecological momentary assessment (observation N=19,968) to investigate how maladaptive traits moderated the processes of stress generation, stress reactivity, and affective spillover/inertia. Tests of our preregistered hypotheses provided a mix of supportive and null findings for stress processes identified in past research, and mixed support for the moderating role of personality. The results provide insights into the relations between everyday stressors and personality pathology.

The development of personality-From metatraits to facets-Across adolescence and into adulthood in a sample of Mexican-origin youth

The time between adolescence and adulthood is a transformative period of development. During these years, youth are exploring work, relationships, and worldviews while gaining the capacities needed to take on adult roles. These social and psychological processes are reflected in how personality develops across this period. Most youth personality development research has focused on the Big Five domains, ignoring the hierarchical structure of personality and missing broader, higher order processes and more specific, lower order processes. Toward a more comprehensive account, this study examines how personality develops from adolescence into the early years of adulthood at the metatrait (stability, plasticity), domain (Big Five), and facet levels. Data come from a longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth (N = 645) with few socioeconomic resources who were assessed 5 times from Ages 14 to 23. We used latent growth curve models to investigate mean-level change, rank-order consistency, and the maintenance of trajectories for self-reported personality metatraits, domains, and facets. We found distinct developmental processes unfolding at each level of the hierarchy, including (a) mean-level changes in the metatraits and domains indicating increases in exploratory tendencies (i.e., plasticity) and maturity (i.e., increases in agreeableness and conscientiousness, decreases in neuroticism), and divergent change patterns between facets within each domain indicating nuanced maturational processes; (b) comparable levels of rank-order consistency for metatraits, domains, and facets; and (c) evidence that deviations from youth's developmental trajectories did not persist over time. Our findings offer insights into personality development that would be impossible to glean from the domain-level alone and adds needed sociocultural diversity to the literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Longitudinal Network of Borderline-Related Trait Vulnerabilities from Childhood to Adolescence

Early maladaptive traits are predictive of later borderline personality pathology (BPP), but little is known about their dynamic interplay over time. This is an important issue to address, however, as significant differences in the 'clinical weight' of various traits constituting the early BPP trait phenotype may inform the field on important target constructs from an early intervention perspective. Therefore, the current study aims to uncover the complex dependencies between BPP traits across the crucial developmental period of childhood and adolescence, by using longitudinal network analysis. Both between- and within-person networks were constructed to identify how early mother-reported borderline-related traits are connected across a timespan of six years (ntime 1 = 718, Mtime1 = 10.73 years, SDtime1 = 1.39, 55.1% girls). Overall, the temporal network suggested various trait interdependencies, with internalizing traits being particularly influential in the development of the BPP trait network structure. At the same time, externalizing traits likely inhibit the negative effects of these core traits. In addition, results also revealed that internalizing and externalizing clusters of early borderline-related traits are linked through emotional lability. Implications of these findings are discussed in view of the change mechanisms at play and potential targets for early intervention.

Associations between childhood adversity, psychiatric symptoms, and self-esteem outcomes in adolescents and young adults: An experience sampling study

OBJECTIVES

Self-esteem and self-esteem stability are important factors during adolescence and young adulthood that can be negatively impacted by childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms. We examined whether childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms are associated with decreased global self-esteem as well as increased self-esteem instability as measured with experience sampling method. In addition, we examined if childhood adversity moderates the association between psychiatric symptoms and self-esteem outcomes.

METHODS

Our study consisted of 788 adolescents and young adults who were part of a twin pair. The twin structure was not of interest to the current study. Mean age was 16.8 (SD = 2.38, range: 14-25), 42% was male. We used a multilevel modeling approach to examine our hypotheses to account for the presence of twins in the data set.

RESULTS

Childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms were negatively associated with global self-esteem (respectively standardized β = -.18, SE = 0.04, p < .0001 and standardized β = -.45, SE = 0.04, p < .0001), with a larger effect for psychiatric symptoms. Similarly, both were associated with increased self-esteem instability (respectively standardized β = .076, SE = 0.025, p = .002 and standardized β = .11, SE = 0.021, p < .0001). In addition, interactions between childhood adversity and psychiatric symptoms on both global self-esteem (standardized β = .06, SE = 0.01, p < .0001) and self-esteem instability (standardized β = -.002, SE = 0.0006, p = .001) were found, showing that the negative association of psychiatric symptoms with self-esteem outcomes is less pronounced in young people with higher levels of childhood adversity, or formulated differently, is more pronounced in young people with little or no exposure to childhood adversity.

CONCLUSION

Global self-esteem and self-esteem instability in young people are influenced by both current psychiatric symptomatology and exposure to childhood adversity. Those with more psychiatric symptoms show worse self-esteem and higher self-esteem instability, which is moderated by childhood adversity. For young people with high childhood adversity levels lower self-esteem and higher self-esteem instability are less influenced by reductions in psychiatric symptoms.

Structure of Pathological Personality Traits Through the Lens of the CAT-PD Model

Personality pathology is increasingly conceptualized within hierarchical, dimensional trait models. The Comprehensive Assessment of Traits Relevant to Personality Disorders (CAT-PD) is a pathological-trait measure with potential to improve on currently prevailing instruments because it has wider content coverage; however, its domain-level structure, which is of scientific and clinical interest, is not established. In this study, we investigated the structure and construct validity of the CAT-PD's domain level to facilitate wider use of the measure. We estimated five- and six-factor models with exploratory factor analysis in a pooled sample of eight independent subsamples (N = 3,987) and found that both models fit the data well; each had interpretable factors that were invariant across gender, sample type, and Black/White racial groups; and the factors had good convergent validity with other measures of maladaptive traits, Big Five personality, and interpersonal problems. Our results support the validity of the CAT-PD for assessing multiple levels of the pathological trait hierarchy.