THE 5 FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY AND THE DSM-III-R PERSONALITY-DISORDERS - CORRESPONDENCE AND DIFFERENTIATION

A comprehensive appraisal of the relevance of the five factor model of personality to diagnostic categories for the personality disorders re quires two steps. First, substantive correspondence between the genera l personality model and the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Associatio n, 1987) formulation of the personality disorders must be demonstrated . Second, those manifestations of the general personality dimensions t hat bear specifically upon personality disorder must be differentiated from their broader, less problematic manifestations. Wiggins and Pinc us (1989) and Costa and McCrae (1990) have shown that the personality disorder diagnostic categories can be meaningfully related to the five factor model (FFM) of personality. These studies employed an external analysis to demonstrate correspondence. The present study used an alt ernative internal conceptual analysis. With regard to correspondence, our findings largely replicate those reported from studies employing a n external analysis. In addition, internal conceptual analysis is appl ied to delineating behavioral manifestations of the FFM personality di mensions especially relevant to the domain of the personality disorder s. With regard to differentiation, our findings from this domain point to distinctive variants for the FFM dimensions of Extroversion, Agree ableness, and Neuroticism.