Counseling and psychotherapy: Split personality or siamese twins?

Psychotherapy is a process "implemented by interview techniques which seeks to alter the client's receptor or response system in such a way that healthy behavior will occur in situations where unhealthy behavior has been typical." An attempt will be made "to describe a kind of nonpathological emotional distress that is clearly the special province of the counseling psychologist." We "see psychotherapy and at least one type of counseling, psychological discordance reduction, as Siamese twins. These processes are two distinct but closely related entities that share some vital concerns. Perhaps one of both of these twins have split personalities, but the distinction between them is not delusional." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rejection–rage contingency in borderline personality disorder.

Though long-standing clinical observation reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.) suggests that the rage characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD) often appears in response to perceived rejection, the role of perceived rejection in triggering rage in BPD has never been empirically tested. Extending basic personality research on rejection sensitivity to a clinical sample, a priming–pronunciation experiment and a 21-day experience-sampling diary examined the contingent relationship between perceived rejection and rage in participants diagnosed with BPD compared with healthy controls. Despite the differences in these 2 assessment methods, the indices of rejection-contingent rage that they both produced were elevated in the BPD group and were strongly interrelated. They provide corroborating evidence that reactions to perceived rejection significantly explain the rage seen in BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does comorbid substance use disorder exacerbate borderline personality features? A comparison of borderline personality disorder individuals with vs. without current substance dependence.

There is compelling evidence that comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD) negatively impact the clinical courses and outcomes of substance use disorders (SUD). Conversely, there is little evidence that concurrent SUD exacerbates the clinical characteristics of BPD. Thus, this study sought to examine whether the presence of current substance dependence among BPD patients would be associated with stronger BPD-relevant personality traits and behavioral characteristics. Female BPD patients without (BOR; n = 37) or with current substance dependence (BSUD; n = 19), and female non-BPD/SUD controls (CON; n = 48) were compared with respect to impulsivity, affective lability, affective intensity, externalizing behaviors, and self-harming/suicidal tendencies, taking into consideration their comorbid mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and antisocial personality disorder. Results indicated that both BOR and BSUD groups scored higher than CON in most of the measures, but BOR and BSUD failed to reveal significant group differences especially when the influence of comorbid psychopathology was removed. The overall pattern of findings remained identical even when comparing BPD patients with versus without the diagnosis of lifetime substance dependence. Our results do not support the notion that BPD individuals with SUD display more severe BPD features than individuals with BPD alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's social about social psychology? Where's the person in personality research?

Content analyses of research published in the 1982 volumes of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicate that social psychologists have largely failed to study subjects drawn from meaningfully defined social groups, to consider social structural variables, to study genuine social interaction, to observe social influences on psychological functioning, or to ask Ss about social issues. It is maintained that with few exceptions, personality researchers have failed to study groups other than college students, to use biographical materials or personal documents, to devise appropriate experimental treatments, to study persons over time, or even to retain the individual as a unit of analysis. Currently, the 2 fields of social and personality psychological research appear to be linked mainly by their deficiencies and appear to have little content worth sharing. Reexamination of each field's traditions and priorities is urgently needed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do response time limitations counteract the effect of faking on personality inventory validity?

Different models of lying on personality scales make discrepant predictions on the association between faking and item response time. The current research investigated response time restriction as a method for reducing the influence of faking on personality scale validity. In 3 assessment simulations involving 540 university undergraduates responding to 2 common, psychometrically strong personality inventories, no evidence emerged to indicate that limiting respondents' answering time can attenuate the effects of faking on validity. Results were interpreted as failing to support a simple model of personality test item response dissimulation that predicts that lying takes time. Findings were consistent with models implying that lying involves primitive cognitive processing or that lying may be associated with complex processing that includes both primitive responding and cognitive overrides. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job search and employment: A personality–motivational analysis and meta-analytic review.

A motivational, self-regulatory conceptualization of job search was used to organize and investigate the relationships between personality, expectancies, self, social, motive, and biographical variables and individual differences in job search behavior and employment outcomes. Meta-analytic results indicated that all antecedent variables, except optimism, were significantly related to job search behavior, with estimated population correlations ranging from –.15 to .46. As expected, job search behavior was significantly and positively related to finding employment. Several antecedents of job search were also significantly related to employment success, although the size of these relationships was consistently smaller than those obtained for job search. Moderator analyses showed significant differences in the size of variable relationships for type of job search measure (effort vs. intensity) and sample type (job loser vs. employed job seeker vs. new entrant). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality pathology is dimensional, so what shall we do with the DSM-IV personality disorder categories? The case of narcissistic personality disorder: Comment on Miller and Campbell (2010).

What is narcissism? Is it a dimensional personality trait? Is it the core element of a categorical form of psychopathology? Miller and Campbell (see record 2010-17135-004) present a thoughtful, scholarly, and well-written review of a substantial literature aimed at synthesizing research on trait narcissism and contemplating its relevance to the category of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). They also present an argument that research on trait narcissism should be used to help propel research on NPD, as explicated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM–IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). This latter argument is somewhat surprising in the context of the rest of Miller and Campbell’s article and it is the focus of my commentary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How strong is the case against contemporary social and personality psychology? A response to Carlson.

Discusses a content analysis of the research published in the 1982 volumes of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, in which R. Carlson (see record 1985-11991-001) found that Carlson is incorrect in (a) an overly restrictive definition of what constitutes valid social and personality psychology, (b) her negative evaluations of the worth of the current approaches, and (c) an unjustified set of methodological prejudices. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does the mind fall apart in multiple personality disorder? Some proposals based on a psychoanalytic case

A psychoanalytic study of some of the phenomena of multiple personality disorder (MPD), this paper takes issue with the view that a falling apart, fragmentation, or disaggregation of the mind is at the bottom of MPD's characteristic symptoms. Since first proposed by Janet in 1889, the view that ordinarily integrated parts of the mind separate from the center, accounting for the appearance of separate "selves," has prevailed among workers in this field. The close psychoanalytic study of a case of MPD suggests that, to the contrary, the appearance of multiplicity may derive from an essentially unitary but nonetheless powerful set of organizing fantasies centering on the idea that one's body and mind can be taken over and controlled by persons other than oneself. The data of the case under study suggest, further, that certain of the details of these patients' histories of childhood sexual and physical abuse may be of great importance in explaining the extraordinary organizing power of their fantasies of being occupied and controlled. In this connection, special attention is directed to the very commonly reported experiences of forced violation and the involuntary filling and emptying of their bodies during childhood.     

Mothers’ and fathers’ personality and parenting: The mediating role of sense of competence.

This prospective longitudinal study addressed 3 key questions regarding the processes of parenting in a large community sample of mothers (n = 589) and fathers (n = 518). First, the collective impact of parental Big Five personality dimensions on overreactive and warm parenting, assessed 6 years later by adolescents, was examined. Second, mediation of these associations by sense of competence in the parenting role was addressed. Third, it was explored to what extent associations were similar for mothers and fathers. Agreeableness and Extraversion were related to lower levels of overreactivity and higher levels of warmth. Sense of competence completely mediated relations between personality and overreactivity and partially mediated relations between personality and warmth. The associations were found to be similar for mothers and fathers. Overall, sense of competence was shown to be an important mechanism that can explain the link between personality and parenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are self-perceivable neuropsychological deficits in patients with neuroses or personality disorder diagnoses indicative of later schizophrenia?

We designed a spreadsheet package for the computation of plausibility of paternity, that can cope with highly polymorphic genetic markers and cases of deceased parties. The application program is Microsoft EXCEL, which is one of the best-selling spreadsheet software running on both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh OS. Komatsu's formula for paternity testing was mainly employed in the spreadsheet package. Probability of the mother-child-alleged father combination was calculated using "IF" function to compare the members' genotypes, whereas "VLOOKUP (or HLOOKUP)" function was employed to refer to a list of genes and their frequencies. In case of a phenotype consisting of several genotypes, the list of phenotypes versus genotypes was also given, to which the function referred. To extend these spreadsheets available for the test of deceased party, additional sheets were also created to estimate frequencies of alleged father's possible genotypes. These probabilities were calculated on the basis of types of his parents and siblings, those of his wife and their biological children, and those of both. This package would be cut out to compute the probability of paternity with extremely polymorphic loci with gentle user interface. Calculation time is satisfactorily short, although it requires considerably large disk space in some extremely complicated cases. Japanese version of this package is freely available at anonymous FTP site of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine.     

Juvenile male rape victims: is the level of post-traumatic stress related to personality and parenting?

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the level of post-traumatic stress in juvenile male rape victims and to test for its relationships with perceived parental rearing and personality dimensions. METHOD: Fifteen subjects (mean age of 16 years) were recruited from a correctional camp for juvenile criminals in Arkhangelsk, Russia. They were investigated by means of the "Revised Impact of Event Scale," the "Child Self-Report Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index," the "Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale," the "EMBU" (perceived parental rearing) and the "Temperament and Character Inventory" (TCI). RESULTS: The level of post-traumatic stress, in most cases moderate to high, correlated with the temperament dimensions of harm avoidance and reward dependence. As concerns parental rearing, the total level of post-traumatic stress reaction was negatively correlated with paternal emotional warmth and positively with paternal rejection. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of post-traumatic stress is influenced by temperamental characteristics as well as by perceived parental rearing practices. Assumingly, these factors also play a role in becoming a rape victim, which deserves further investigation.     

Cross-cultural personality assessment in psychiatric populations: The NEO-PI—R in the People's Republic of China.

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI—R) is a measure of the 5-factor model developed on volunteer samples in the United States. To examine its validity in a non-Western, psychiatric sample, an existing Chinese translation was modified for use in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The instrument was administered to 2,000 psychiatric in- and outpatients at 13 sites throughout the PRC. Internal consistency was low for some facet scales, but retest reliability was adequate and the hypothesized factor structure was clearly recovered. Correlations with age, California Psychological Inventory scales, and spouse ratings supported the validity of NEO-PI—R scales, and diagnostic subgroups showed meaningful personality profiles. The 5-factor model appears to be useful for the assessment of personality among Chinese psychiatric patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do neurocognitive ability and personality traits account for different aspects of psychosocial outcome after traumatic brain injury?

Objective: To examine the contributions of demographic, injury, cognitive, and personality characteristics to psychosocial outcome 8 years after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design: Multiple regression analyses were used to estimate the variance explained by putative "predictors" of psychosocial outcome. Participants: Thirty-nine TBI survivors and 39 family member informants. On the basis of Glasgow Coma Scale scores and Accident Injury Severity (head) ratings, the patients' brain injuries ranged from mild to critical in severity. Main Outcome Measures: One self-report measure combined putative markers of social role engagement, such as marital status and earned income. Another, based on informant ratings using the Katz Adjustment Scale, was conceptualized as reflecting behavioral adjustment. Results: Whereas cognitive functioning explained significant unique variation in social role engagement, it did not account for variance in behavioral adjustment. Conversely, whereas 3 personality trait ratings explained significant incremental variance in behavioral stability, only 1 did the same with respect to social role engagement. Conclusions: Social role engagement and behavioral adjustment appear to represent 2 related but distinguishable aspects of TBI outcome that are associated with different patient characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal workplace deviance: Why do offenders act out? A comparative look on personality and organisational variables.

To understand interpersonal workplace deviance in a more comprehensive way, in this study we investigated the relationship between personality and organisational variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions based on responses from 284 employees revealed that physical violence was positively related to continuance commitment and workplace frustration and negatively correlated with procedural justice. Also, psychological violence was negatively correlated with age but positively linked to affective commitment and frustration. Amongst personality traits, agreeableness was negatively correlated with both physical and psychological violence. Furthermore, personality traits still explained a statistically significant proportion of variance after controlling for organisational and sociodemographic factors. Thus, it seems imperative to include personality traits to fully understand interpersonal workplace deviance. The discussion aims to help organisations cope with deviance in their work environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

How does personality matter in marriage? An examination of trait anxiety, interpersonal negativity, and marital satisfaction.

Although trait anxiety and its aliases (negative affectivity, neuroticism) have frequently been found to be associated with marital dissatisfaction, few efforts have been made to identify the processes through which trait anxiety exerts its influence. This study reports findings from a 13-year, 4-phase longitudinal study in which trait anxiety, measured when spouses were newlyweds, consistently predicted marital negativity which, in turn, was associated with partner's marital dissatisfaction. Some support was also found for effects of trait anxiety on partner's marital satisfaction, independent of marital negativity, as well as for the idea that trait anxiety is directly related to spouses' own marital satisfaction. Trait anxiety did not distinguish couples who divorced from those who remained married, and it generally did not predict declines in marital satisfaction. The disagreeable impact of trait anxiety on marriage was evident at the outset of marriage and was stable over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How do people with different attachment styles balance work and family? A personality perspective on work–family linkage.

This study explored whether different models of work–family relationship were possible for individuals with different attachment styles. A mail survey was conducted using employees (N?=?481) at a midwestern university in the United States. Results suggested that (a) individuals with a preoccupied attachment pattern were more likely to experience negative spillover from the family/home to the work domain than those with a secure or dismissing style, (b) securely attached individuals experienced positive spillover in both work and family domains more than those in the other groups, and (c) preoccupied individuals were much less likely to use a segmentation strategy than the other 3 attachment groups. However, when the conventional job satisfaction–life satisfaction relationship was examined, the data provided unique support for the spillover model. Implications of the findings for both attachment and work–family relationship literatures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in Big Five personality traits across 55 cultures.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 96(1) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2008-18683-004). Some of the sample sizes presented in Table 1 were incorrectly reported. The correct sample sizes are presented in the erratum.] Previous research suggested that sex differences in personality traits are larger in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities equal with those of men. In this article, the authors report cross-cultural findings in which this unintuitive result was replicated across samples from 55 nations (N = 17,637). On responses to the Big Five Inventory, women reported higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than did men across most nations. These findings converge with previous studies in which different Big Five measures and more limited samples of nations were used. Overall, higher levels of human development--including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, and economic wealth--were the main nation-level predictors of larger sex differences in personality. Changes in men's personality traits appeared to be the primary cause of sex difference variation across cultures. It is proposed that heightened levels of sexual dimorphism result from personality traits of men and women being less constrained and more able to naturally diverge in developed nations. In less fortunate social and economic conditions, innate personality differences between men and women may be attenuated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bipolar spectrum–substance use co-occurrence: Behavioral approach system (BAS) sensitivity and impulsiveness as shared personality vulnerabilities.

Bipolar disorders and substance use disorders (SUDs) show high co-occurrence. One explanation for this co-occurrence may be common personality vulnerabilities involved in both. The authors tested whether high behavioral approach system (BAS) sensitivity and impulsiveness are shared personality vulnerabilities in bipolar spectrum disorders and substance use problems and their co-occurrence in a longitudinal study of 132 individuals on the bipolar spectrum and 153 control participants. At Time 1, participants completed the Behavioral Inhibition System/BAS Scales and the Impulsive Nonconformity Scale. Substance use problems were assessed via the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test and the Drug Abuse Screening Test at 4-month intervals for 1 year. Participants with bipolar disorder had higher rates of lifetime SUDs and substance use problems during the follow-up, relative to control participants. In line with hypotheses, higher BAS sensitivity and impulsiveness predicted bipolar status and increased substance use problems prospectively. BAS total, BAS Fun Seeking, and impulsiveness mediated the association between bipolar spectrum status and prospective substance use problems, with impulsiveness as the most important mediator. High BAS sensitivity and impulsiveness may represent shared personality vulnerabilities for both disorders and may partially account for their co-occurrence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)