The relationship of self-esteem, locus of control, and dimensional models to personality disorders

The relationship of personality disorders (PDs) with self-esteem, locus of control, and the interpersonal (dominance and love) and five-factor models (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) of personality was investigated using 244 university student s. Self-esteem and locus of control were good predictors for seven of the I I personality disorders, indicating that these variables are useful additio ns to the interpersonal and five-factor conceptions of PD. Self-esteem was a strong predictor of the avoidant, borderline, dependent, and obsessive-co mpulsive PDs. Most of the PDs are positively related to chance and powerful others control and negatively related to internal locus of control. These results suggest a possible continuum from interpersonal (antisocial) to int rapsychic conflict (borderline), with the remaining disorders being mixture s of these two extremes. This differing composition of interpersonal and ps ychosocial variables is helpful in discriminating personality disorders.