A study of personality in eating disorders

Some evidence suggests that temperament and personality traits could influence the development and severity of eating disorders. This study was designed to study these aspects. METHODS: 72 patients with DSM-IV eating disorders including 25 anorexia nervosa restricting type, 17 with anorexia nervosa binge eating-purging type and 30 with bulimia nervosa were studied and compared with thirty healthy controls. Personality disorders and temperament were studied with the Eysenck's EPQ, Cloninger's TCI and SCID-II. Impulsive and clinical features were studied with specific rating scales. RESULTS: 61.8% of patients had at least one personality disorder. Avoidant personality disorder was the most commonly diagnosed in anorexia restricting type (25%). Borderline personality disorder was the most frequent in bulimia nervosa and in the binge eating-purging type of anorexia nervosa. Dimensionally, the group of eating disorders presented high scores in neuroticism and low scores in self-directedness. Higher harm avoidance was found in bulimic patients and higher persistence was associated with anorectic patients. Bulimic patients were significantly more impulsive than anorectic and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Temperament and personality traits differ in anorectic and bulimic patients. Bulimic symptoms are linked to impulsive temperament traits and to impulsive personality features. Anorectic symptoms are linked to persistent temperament traits and anxious personality features.     

Family study of schizophrenia and personality.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the abnormal characteristics observed in relatives of schizophrenics represent variations in normal personality. Relatives (N?=?340) of patients with schizophrenia, affective disorder, and medical or surgical conditions were personally interviewed about psychiatric symptoms and completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Relatives who were themselves ill had elevated scores on some scales. Relatives of schizophrenics had normal scores on all personality scales, but relatives of affectively ill probands differed from other relatives on Well-Being and measures of Negative Emotionality. When schizophrenic probands were subtyped by symptoms, relatives of emotionally blunted schizophrenics were found to have slightly lower scores on Social Closeness than did relatives of controls. Overall, these results suggest that schizophrenia is unrelated to normal personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of the genetics of personality

A longitudinal twin study was conducted to determine whether personality traits with significant heritability in adolescence remain so in adulthood. A subsample of a group of twins who had been administered in Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the California Psychological Inventory in adolescence was readministered the same two inventories 12 years later. The subsample was found to be representative of the sample from which it was drawn. Different patterns of significantly heritability were found for the two ages studied: Several personality traits demonstrated evidence of significant heritability in either adolescence or adulthood, while others demonstrated evidence of significant heritability at both ages. In addition, genetic influences on the change from adolescence to adulthood were found for several personality traits. The results raise important questions for the interpretation of twin research and the understanding of genetic influences on personality development.     

A case study of a multiple personality.

A 15 year old Indian girl is reported to have 2 secondary personalities; one, a middle aged woman, the other, a young man. The secondary personalities were exceptionally well formed and would change about twice a week. Hypnosis was used to bring up the dissociated personalities. A discussion of multiple personality was carried out in terms of repression and identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction: personality psychology and the case study

This article introduces the Journal of Personality's special issue on the life voyage of Dodge Morgan who, in 1986 at the age of 54, sailed solo around the world in 150 days. Before the voyage, Morgan agreed to participate in an intensive psychological case study, the data for which provide the focus for this special issue. William Nasby and Nancy W. Read have organized the vast array of psychological data obtained from Morgan and produced a complex and illuminating interpretation of his life, drawing liberally from the five-factor trait model of personality and the life-story model of adult identity. This introduction provides a historical and intellectual context for Nasby and Read's study by considering the various ways in which personality psychologists have employed the case study in research and examining the many conceptual and methodological problems and possibilities that arise in the psychological study of the single case.     

A twin study of objectively assessed personality in childhood.

Obtained objectively assessed measures of activity, fidgeting, vigilance, selective attention, and aggression for a sample of 87 twin pairs in late childhood (mean age 7.6 yrs). Data included videotaped observations in standardized situations, objective test scores, and mechanical measures. Test–retest reliability was obtained for all measures. Contrary to results of questionnaire studies, there was little evidence for genetic influence on reliable and objective behavioral assessments. Also in disagreement with questionnaire studies, between-family environmental sources of variance were far more important than within-family factors. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnotic treatment of multiple personality: A case study.

Discusses the case of a 27-yr-old female with 5 personality alternates who was successfully treated for personality integration with a comprehensive treatment plan. Hypnosis proved valuable in understanding personality dynamics maintaining dissociation, in recovering dissociated experience, and in merging personality fragments. Interview excerpts are presented to illustrate the techniques involved. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting individual change in personality disorder features by simultaneous individual change in personality dimensions linked to neurobehavioral systems: The longitudinal study of personality disorders.

Personality disorders (PDs), long thought to be immutable over time, show considerable evidence of individual change and malleability in modern prospective longitudinal studies. The factors responsible for the evident individual change in PDs over time, however, remain essentially unknown. A neurobehavioral model that posits negative emotion (NEM), nonaffective constraint (CON), communal positive emotion (PEM-C), and agentic positive emotion (PEM-A) as important systems underlying PD provides a theoretical basis for investigating predictors of change in PD features over time. Thus, in this study, the authors investigated how individual change in NEM, CON, PEM-C, and PEM-A over time predicted individual change in PD features over time, using longitudinal data on PD assessed by the International Personality Disorders Examination (A. W. Loranger, 1999), as well as data on normal personality features gathered within a 4-year prospective multiwave longitudinal study (N = 250). The authors used the method of latent growth modeling to conduct their analyses. Lower initial levels of PEM-C predicted initial levels of the growth trajectories for those with elevated Cluster A PD features. Elevated NEM, lower CON, and elevated PEM-A initial levels were found to characterize the initial levels of growth trajectories for those with increased Cluster B PD features. Interestingly, subjects with higher initial levels of PEM-A revealed a more rapid rate of change (declining) in Cluster B PD features over time. Elevated NEM and decreased PEM-C initial levels were found to characterize the growth trajectories for subjects with increased Cluster C PD features. The substantive meaning of these results is discussed, and the methodological advantages offered by this statistical approach are also highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of the personality correlates of marijuana use.

251 undergraduates completed the California Psychological Inventory,, the Adjective Check List, and a drug-use questionnaire in the fall of their freshman year and in each of 1, 2, or 3 succeeding springs. Three prevailing patterns of drug use were identified: (a) Continuous nonusers never disclosed marijuana use; (b) switched nonusers did not disclose marijuana use initially but did so on a later questionnaire, and (c) users disclosed marijuana use both initially and later. Enduring differences between users and continuous nonusers were found. The switched nonusers generally had scores between those of the users and continuous nonusers. On several scales, switched nonusers were similar to users both before and after their use of marijuana. It is concluded that marijuana use, both present and future, can be predicted by a certain pattern of reported personality characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger and dissociation: A case study of multiple personality.

Presents a case of multiple personality in a 24-yr-old woman. It is hypothesized that the inability to express anger toward important figures caused the splitting of the personality. The dissociative state was treated with a brief course of hypnotherapy, and integration was achieved. Preventative work in which the patient learned to deal with her anger was then instituted in the hope of guarding against future splitting. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A field study of frame-of-reference effects on personality test validity.

As part of a test validation study at a major U.S.-based airline, the authors tested the effects of providing an "at work" frame-of-reference on the validity of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory among a sample of customer service supervisors (N = 206). Frame-of-reference moderated the validity of the Extraversion and Openness to Experience subscales after controlling for cognitive ability. In addition, the frame-of-reference personality test showed incremental validity over cognitive ability (ΔR2 = .16), but the standard personality test did not (ΔR2 = .05). The authors' discussion focuses on implications for personality theory and research and on implications for increasing the validity of personality tests in organizational settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood personality influences on social-cognitive development: a longitudinal study

The relation of childhood personality to the development of friendship understanding and moral judgment in adolescence was considered in a longitudinal study. Personality at age 7, assessed with the California Child Q-Set, was characterized in terms of ego-resiliency and ego-control. IQ and social class were also measured. Friendship understanding was assessed when the participants were ages 7, 9, 12, 15, and 19, and moral judgment was elicited when the participants were 12, 15, and 19. Ego-resiliency was found to predict social-cognitive development in adolescence, even after the effects of IQ and childhood measures of social-cognitive development were controlled for. Analyses indicate that the effects of ego-resiliency on social-cognitive development are largely unmediated by the ability to focus attention or by social participation.     

Interrelationship of study skills and personality variables in college students.

Although training in improved study skills is an important function of counseling center personnel, study skills are typically perceived as cognitive skills unrelated to other aspects of functioning. This study was undertaken to determine the relationship of study skills (i.e., study habits and attitudes), as measured by the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, to personality variables, as measured by the California Psychological Inventory. Data from 201 freshmen (correlational, contrasted groups, and factor analyses) clearly indicate the complex interdependence of study skills with personality factors and the need to take the latter into consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping as a personality process: A prospective study.

The study tested the proposition that coping is personality in action under stress. Using a stressful medical school entrance examination, the study examined (a) whether neuroticism emerged in coping patterns over time and (b) whether the influence of neuroticism on coping accounted for changes in anxiety and examination performance. Fifty premedical students reported their coping efforts at 35 days before, 10 days before, and 17 days after the examination. They provided daily reports of anxiety for 35 days surrounding the examination. Neuroticism influenced coping efforts and increases in daily anxiety under stress. Two types of coping, wishful thinking and self-blame, explained over half the relationship between neuroticism and increases in preexamination anxiety. Consistent with previous research (e.g., S. E. Krantz; see record 1983-31242-001), neither neuroticism nor specific coping efforts influenced examination performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between personality structure, structure of word meaning, and cognitive ability: A study of cultural mechanisms of personality.

Native-born Estonian men (N=912), 17-68 years old, participated in a study on relationships between personality characteristics, dominant structure of word meaning ("everyday concepts" thinking or "scientific concepts" thinking), and level of cognitive ability. Individuals who primarily used everyday concepts thinking or who possessed relatively low levels of cognitive ability did not reveal a coherent Big Five personality structure, whereas individuals who primarily used scientific concepts thinking or possessed high levels of cognitive ability did. Thus, personality may be shaped by a cultural factor--word meaning structure. Earlier studies, which seem to support the idea that Big Five personality structure is a biologically determined human universal, suffer from serious sampling problems and insufficient data analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptions of personality disorders and dimensions of personality.

Differing conceptions of personality disorders inherent in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Personality Disorder Scales and the Personality Adjective Checklist were evaluated within the context of the circumplex model of interpersonal behavior and the 5-factor model of personality in a sample of 581 university students. Conceptions of personality disorders were strongly and clearly related to dimensions of normal personality traits. Although the circumplex model illuminated conceptions of some of the disorders, the full 5-factor model was required to capture and clarify the entire range of personality disorders. Implications of these findings are discussed with reference to (a) personality disorders and personality traits and (b) suggestions for assessment of personality disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of variability in sex-linked personality attributes: A twin study.

31 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and 28 pairs of dizygotic (DZ) same-sex, adolescent twins completed Spence and Helmreich's Personal Attributes Inventory, which contains separate scales tapping Masculinity (instrumental traits), Femininity (expressive traits), and bipolar Masculinity–Femininity. Sex-adjusted intraclass correlations were computed for the MZ and DZ twin pairs. Significant twin-pair resemblance was found for Masculinity and Femininity, but not for Masculinity–Femininity. MZ resemblance for Masculinity was greater than DZ resemblance, suggesting a genetic component to masculinity development, but no genetic influence was detected in Femininity. All 3 traits showed substantial within-families variability, and it is concluded that future research should give equal attention to nonshared developmental influences that operate to make siblings dissimilar and to shared developmental influences. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)