Five-factor model personality domains in the prediction of Axis II personality disorders: an exploratory study in late adulthood women non-clinical sample.

Relationships between Axis II personality disorders (DSM-IV) and the five-factor model were explored in a non-clinical sample of late adulthood women. The sample consists of 90 women (M = 72.29 years of age, standard deviation = 7.10), who were administered with two measures, the NEO-FFI and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+. Some personality disorders scales such as paranoid, schizotypal, borderline and dependent demonstrate a differentiated pattern of five-factor model domain predictors. Low agreeableness predicted schizoid, narcissistic and antisocial; histrionic, obsessive-compulsive and negativistic were predicted by high neuroticism and low agreeableness; high neuroticism and low extraversion, in turn, predicted dependent and depressive scales. Also, two clusters of personality disorders are identified, one associated with low agreeableness and another with low agreeableness and high neuroticism. This study suggest that some traits become maladaptive personality traits, and correspond more closely to psychopathology, when they become opposite to what would be expected in line with studies in normal late adulthood development.