STUDIES INTO CATEGORIZATION AND DIMENSION ING OF PERSONALITY-DISORDERS

This paper is concerned with the operationalisation of constructs whic h are considered relevant for a sufficiently valid, reliable and objec tive definition and diagnosis of personality disorders. Based on the t ypological and ''prototype'' approach of the DSM-III-R different categ orial and dimensional facets are discussed and examined with respect t o their theoretical and empirical relevance for a representative asses sment of various clinically relevant personality disorders (11 axis-II disorders of the DSM-III-R as well as 4 additional ''subaffective'' d isorders) using a newly developed instrument, the ''Aachen integrated feature list for the assessment of personality disorders (AMPS). Data from a consecutive sample of 235 psychiatric patients were analyzed in order to comprehensively compare the theoretical concepts and constru cts of personality disorders mostly derived from exploratory factor an alytic studies. Methods used were cluster analyses, confirmatory nonme tric similarity structure analyses, procrustean scaling procedures as well as fecet theoretic validation approaches.