Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, USA.
Personal Disord. 2010 Jan;1(1):5-21. doi: 10.1037/a0018136.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–IV–TR) currently conceptualizes personality disorders (PDs) as categorical syndromes that are distinct from normal personality. However, an alternative dimensional viewpoint is that PDs are maladaptive expressions of general personality traits. The dimensional perspective postulates that personality pathology exists at a more extreme level of the latent trait than does general personality. This hypothesis was examined using item response theory analyses comparing scales from two personality pathology instruments—the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ; Livesley & Jackson, in press) and the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP; Clark, 1993; Clark, Simms, Wu, & Casillas, in press)—with scales from an instrument designed to assess normal range personality, the NEO Personality Inventory–Revised (NEO PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992). The results indicate that respective scales from these instruments assess shared latent constructs, with the NEO PI-R providing more information at the lower (normal) range and the DAPP-BQ and SNAP providing more information at the higher (abnormal) range. Nevertheless, the results also demonstrated substantial overlap in coverage. Implications of the findings are discussed with respect to the study and development of items that would provide specific discriminations along underlying trait continua.
《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》（DSM-IV-TR）目前将人格障碍（PD）概念化为与正常人格不同的分类综合征。然而，另一种维度观点认为，PD 是一般人格特质的适应不良表现。维度观点假设人格病理存在于潜在特质的更极端水平，而不是一般人格。使用项目反应理论分析检验了这一假设，该分析比较了两个人格病理工具的量表——人格病理维度评估问卷-基础问卷（DAPP-BQ；Livesley & Jackson，即将出版）和不适应和适应人格量表（SNAP；Clark，1993；Clark、Simms、Wu 和 Casillas，即将出版）——与旨在评估正常范围人格的工具的量表，即《大五人格量表修订版》（NEO PI-R；Costa 和 McCrae，1992）。结果表明，这些工具的各自量表评估了共同的潜在结构，NEO PI-R 在较低（正常）范围内提供了更多信息，而 DAPP-BQ 和 SNAP 在较高（异常）范围内提供了更多信息。然而，结果也表明存在大量重叠。讨论了这些发现对潜在特质连续体进行具体区分的项目研究和开发的意义。
