Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Psychol Med. 2020 Jul;50(9):1418-1432. doi: 10.1017/S003329172000183X. Epub 2020 Jun 4.
Taxometric procedures have been used extensively to investigate whether individual differences in personality and psychopathology are latently dimensional or categorical ('taxonic'). We report the first meta-analysis of taxometric research, examining 317 findings drawn from 183 articles that employed an index of the comparative fit of observed data to dimensional and taxonic data simulations. Findings supporting dimensional models outnumbered those supporting taxonic models five to one. There were systematic differences among 17 construct domains in support for the two models, but psychopathology was no more likely to generate taxonic findings than normal variation (i.e. individual differences in personality, response styles, gender, and sexuality). No content domain showed aggregate support for the taxonic model. Six variables - alcohol use disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, problem gambling, autism, suicide risk, and pedophilia - emerged as the most plausible taxon candidates based on a preponderance of independently replicated findings. We also compared the 317 meta-analyzed findings to 185 additional taxometric findings from 96 articles that did not employ the comparative fit index. Studies that used the index were 4.88 times more likely to generate dimensional findings than those that did not after controlling for construct domain, implying that many taxonic findings obtained before the popularization of simulation-based techniques are spurious. The meta-analytic findings support the conclusion that the great majority of psychological differences between people are latently continuous, and that psychopathology is no exception.
分类分析法已被广泛应用于研究人格和精神病理学领域的个体差异是否具有潜在的维度性或类别性（“分类性”）。我们报告了分类分析研究的首次荟萃分析，共纳入了 183 篇文章中的 317 项研究结果，这些文章采用了观察数据与维度和分类数据模拟的拟合指数。支持维度模型的发现数量是支持分类模型的五倍。在支持两种模型的 17 个结构域中存在系统差异，但精神病理学产生分类发现的可能性并不高于正常变异（即人格、反应方式、性别和性取向的个体差异）。没有任何内容领域总体上支持分类模型。根据大量独立重复的发现，有六个变量——酒精使用障碍、间歇性爆发障碍、赌博问题、自闭症、自杀风险和恋童癖——成为最有可能的分类候选者。我们还将这 317 项荟萃分析的结果与另外 185 项来自 96 篇未采用比较拟合指数的分类分析结果进行了比较。在控制了结构域后，使用该指数的研究产生维度发现的可能性是未使用该指数的研究的 4.88 倍，这表明在模拟技术普及之前获得的许多分类发现是虚假的。荟萃分析的结果支持这样的结论，即人与人之间的绝大多数心理差异都是潜在的连续性的，精神病理学也不例外。
