Examining the Structure of Personality Dysfunction Among Individuals Involved in Mental Health treatment: A Registered Report

Abstract

Personality dysfunction is a core element of the diagnosis of personality disorders in both main diagnostic systems ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [5th ed.] Personality Disorders and ICD-11 [ International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision] Personality Disorders). A recent study by Sleep et al. explored the structure of personality dysfunction ( N = 517 undergraduates) with exploratory bass-ackward factor analyses at the item level using items from six measures of personality functioning. The present study represents a replication of the study by Sleep and colleagues in a community sample of individuals currently in or seeking psychological/psychiatric treatment. Participants were recruited from Prolific who completed items from six measures of personality dysfunction ( N = 457). The primary factor analysis identified three lower-order factors of impairment (Negative Self-Regard, Disagreeableness, and Intimacy Problems). These dysfunction factors showed moderate to strong relations to the factors generated by Sleep et al.; however, there were important differences in the overall structure suggesting a lack of formal replication.