VALIDATION STRATEGIES FOR THE PERSONALITY-DISORDERS

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the utility of considering the validation of personality disorders from the perspective of constr uct validation. It is suggested that the importance of any particular component of validation depends in large part on the theoretical const ruct of personality disorder that is being proposed. Illustrations are provided with respect to content validity, convergent and discriminan t validity, and predictive validity, and with respect to the substanti ve issues of selecting diagnostic criteria and establishing a threshol d for diagnosis.