Modeling and measuring the personality disorders

Livesley, Jang, and Vernon (1998. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55, 941-9 48) reported that personality disorders (PDs) are quantitatively extreme ex pressions of normal personality functioning, A similarly designed study att empts to replicate those findings for both self- and observer-rated reports of patients judged clinically to have a PD. Analyses of data sets generate d by 758 self-reports (SRs) and 515 reports from corroborative witnesses (C Ws) refined the set of 266 descriptors to 142 items assessing 30 constructs . Intercorrelation of the constructs revealed considerable interdependence. Principal components analyses identified four factors, consistent across t he SR and CW databases, and consistent with the Livesley ct al. (1998) anal yses where they were labeled Emotional Dysregulation, Dissocial, Inhibition , and Compulsivity, Replication and extension of findings to CW-rated data offer additional support for the argument that higher-order PD traits stron gly resemble normal personality dimensions.