Abstract
Research has indicated that a dimensional conceptualisation of psychopathology may be more accurate than the current categorical approach. Two symptom dimensions, Internalising and Externalising, have emerged, and have been linked to major trait domains of personality (the Big Five). However, previous studies have tended to focus on broader personality domains, neglecting to examine associations between sub-domains (facets). The current study addressed this gap by examining associations between facets of the Big Five and Internalising and Externalising. A sample of 290 adults (Mage = 37.0, SD = 14.0; 74% female) responded to a survey which included the IPIP-NEO and ASEBA Adult Self Report. Hierarchical multiple regressions identified personality facets that may represent vulnerability factors for Internalising and Externalising. For Internalising, multiple facet-level associations were found within Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, and in the latter two cases both positive and negative associations were identified. For Externalising, most facet-level associations were found within Neuroticism and Extraversion (and to a lesser extent, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness), and were in the expected direction. In both cases, the inclusion of facets provided novel and useful information about the relationship between personality and psychopathology, which may be used to improve current methods for assessing and treating mental dysfunction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The dataset generated and analysed during the current study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2003). Manual for the ASEBA adult forms & profiles. University of Vermont Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.
Achenbach, T. M., Ivanova, M. Y., Rescorla, L. A., Turner, L. V., & Althoff, R. R. (2016). Internalising/Externalising problems: Review and recommendations for clinical and research applications. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(8), 647–656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2016.05.012
Alcorn, J. L., Gowin, J. L., Green, C. E., Swann, A. C., Moeller, F. G., & Lane, S. D. (2013). Aggression, impulsivity, and psychopathic traits in combined antisocial personality disorder and substance use disorder. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 25, 229–232. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.12030060
Allan, J., Leeson, P., De Fruyt, F., & Martin, S. (2018). Application of a 10 week coaching program to facilitate volitional personality change: Overall effects on personality and the impact of targeting. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 16(1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.24384/000470
Allemand, M., & Fluckiger, C. (2017). Changing personality traits: Some considerations from psychotherapy process-outcome research for intervention efforts on intentional personality change. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 27(4), 476–494. https://doi.org/10.1037/int0000094
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
An, L., Liu, C., Zhang, N., Chen, Z., Ren, D., Yuan, F., Yuan, R., Bi, Y., Ji, L., Guo, Z., Ma, G., Xu, F., Yang, F., Zhu, L., Robert, G., Xu, Y., He, L., Bai, B., Yu, T., & He, G. (2019). GRIK3 rs490647 is a common genetic variant between personality and subjective well-being in Chinese Han population. Emerging Science Journal, 3(2), 78–87. https://doi.org/10.28991/esj-2019-01171
Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324–333. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720160014002
Beck, A. T., & Haigh, E. A. P. (2014). Advances in cognitive theory and therapy: The generic cognitive model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153734
Bienvenu, O. J., Samuels, J. F., Costa, P. T., Reti, I. M., Eaton, W. W., & Nestadt, G. (2004). Anxiety and depressive disorders and the five-factor model of personality: A higher- and lower-order personality trait investigation in a community sample. Depression and Anxiety, 20, 92–97. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20026
Chmielewski, M., Bagby, R. M., Markon, K., Ring, A. J., & Ryder, A. G. (2014). Openness to experience, intellect, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychoticism: Resolving the controversy. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28, 483–499. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2014_28_128
Clark, L. A., Watson, D., & Mineka, S. (1994). Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X/94/$3.00
Clark, L. A., Watson, D., & Reynolds, S. (1995). Diagnosis and classification of psychopathology: Challenges to the current system and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 121–153. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.46.020195.001005
Cloninger, R., Svrakic, D. M., & Przybeck, T. R. (1993). A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 975–990.
Conway, C. C., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Fried, E. I., Hallquist, M. N., Kotov, R., Mullins-Sweatt, S. N., Shackman, A. J., Skodol, A. E., South, S. C., Sunderland, M., Waszczuk, M. A., Zald, D. H., Afzali, M. H., Bornovalova, M. A., Carragher, N., Docherty, A. R., Jonas, K. G., Krueger, R. F., ..., & Eaton, N. R. (2019). A hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology can transform mental health research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(3), 419–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618810696
Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO–PI–R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO–FFI) professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.
Dattani, S., Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2018). Mental Health. Our World in Data. Retrieved January 9, 2022, from https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health
DeYoung, C. G., & Krueger, R. F. (2018). A cybernetic theory of psychopathology. Psychological Inquiry, 29(3), 117–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2018.1513680
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the big five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
DeYoung, C. G., Grazioplene, R. G., & Peterson, J. B. (2012). From madness to genius: The openness/intellect trait domain as a paradoxical simplex. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.12.003
Dickson, J. M., Moberly, N. J., O’Dea, C., & Field, M. (2016). Goal fluency, pessimism and disengagement in depression. PLoS ONE, 11(11), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166259
Ettinger, U., Meyhofer, I., Steffens, M., Wagner, M., & Koutsouleris, N. (2014). Genetics, cognition, and neurobiology of schizotypal personality: A review of the overlap with schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 5(18), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00018
Farrell, A. M. (2010). Insufficient discriminant validity: A comment on Bove, Pervan, Beatty, and Shiu (2009). Journal of Business Research, 63, 324–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.003
Fornaro, M., Ventriglio, A., De Pasquale, C., Pistorio, M. L., De Berardis, D., Cattaneo, C. I., ..., & Colicchio, S. (2013). Sensation seeking in major depressive patients: Relationship to sub-threshold bipolarity and cyclothymic temperament. Journal of Affective Disorders, 148, 375–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2013.01.002
Glickman, M. E., Rao, S. R., & Schultz, M. R. (2014). False discovery rate control is a recommended alternative to Bonferroni-type adjustments in health studies. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 67, 850–857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.03.012
Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. In I. Mervielde, I. Deary, F. De Fruyt, & F. Ostendorf (Eds.), Personality Psychology in Europe (pp. 7–28). Tilburg University Press.
Griffith, J. W., Zinbarg, R. E., Craske, M. G., Mineka, S., Rose, R. D., Waters, A. M., & Sutton, J. M. (2010). Neuroticism as a common dimension in the internalizing disorders. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1125–1136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991449
Hicks, B. M., Foster, K. T., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2013). Genetic and environmental influences on the familial transmission of externalizing disorders in adoptive and twin offspring. Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry, 70, 1076–1083. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.258
Hyatt, C. S., Owens, M. M., Gray, J. C., Carter, N. T., MacKillop, J., Sweet, L. H., & Miller, J. D. (2019). Personality traits share overlapping neuroanatomical correlates with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000391
Insel, T., Cuthbert, B., Garvey, M., Heinssen, R., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K., Sanislow, C., & Wang, P. (2010). Research domain criteria (RDoC): Toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(7), 748–751. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09091379
Kaplan, S. C., Levinson, C. A., Rodebaugh, T. L., Menatti, A., & Weeks, J. W. (2015). Social anxiety and the big five personality traits: The interactive relationship of trust and openness. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 44(3), 212–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2015.1008032
Kim, H., & Eaton, N. R. (2015). The hierarchical structure of common mental disorders: Connecting multiple levels of comorbidity, bifactor models, and predictive validity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(4), 1064–1078. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000113
Kim, S.-S., Chung, Y., Perry, M. J., Kawachi, I., & Subramanian, S. V. (2012). Association between interpersonal trust, reciprocity, and depression in South Korea: A prospective analysis. PLoS ONE, 7(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030602
Kotov, R., Gamez, W., Schmidt, F., & Watson, D. (2010). Linking “big” personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(5), 768–821. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020327
Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., Achenbach, T. M., Althoff, R. R., Bagby, R. M., Brown, T. A., Carpenter, W. T., Caspi, A., Clark, L. A., Eaton, N. R., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Goldberg, D., Hasin, D., Hyman, S. E., Ivanova, M. Y., Lynam, D. R., Markon, K., ..., & Zimmerman, M. (2017). The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): A dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(4), 454–477. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000258
Krueger, R. F. (1999). The structure of common mental disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56(10), 921–926. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.56.10.921
Krueger, R. F., & Eaton, N. R. (2015). Transdiagnostic factors of mental disorders. World Psychiatry, 14(1), 27–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712001092
Krueger, R. F., & Markon, K. E. (2006). Reinterpreting comorbidity: A model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.2.022305.095213
Malouff, J. M., Thorsteinsson, E. B., & Schutte, N. S. (2005). The relationship between the five-factor model of personality and symptoms of clinical disorders: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment, 27(2), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-005-5384-y
Martin, L. S., Oades, L. G., & Caputi, P. (2014). Intentional personality change coaching: A randomised controlled trial of participant selected personality facet change using the five-factor model of personality. International Coaching Psychology Review, 9(2), 196–209.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (2008). The five factor theory of personality. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 159–181). Guilford Press.
Mezquita, L., Ibanez, M. I., Villa, H., Fananas, L., Moya-Higueras, J., & Ortet, G. (2015). Five-factor model and internalizing and externalizing syndromes: A 5-year prospective study. Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 98–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.02.002
Milledge, S. V., Cortese, S., Thompson, M., McEwan, F., Rolt, M., Meyer, B., Sonuga-Barke, E., & Eisenbarth, H. (2018). Peer relationships and prosocial behaviour differences across disruptive behaviours. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 781–793. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1249-2
Qualtrics. (2019). Qualtrics Survey Platform [online survey software]. Qualtrics.
Rotenberg, K. J. (1994). Loneliness and interpersonal trust. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 13(2), 152–173.
Ruiz, M. A., Pincus, A. L., & Schinka, J. A. (2008). Externalising pathology and the five-factor model: A meta-analysis of personality traits associated with antisocial personality disorder, substance use disorder, and their co-occurrence. Journal of Personality Disorders, 22(4), 365–388. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2008.22.4.365
Samuel, D. B., Simms, L. J., Clark, L. A., Livesley, W. J., & Widiger, T. A. (2010). An item response theory integration of normal and abnormal personality scales. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018136
Sleep, C. E., Hyatt, C. S., Lamkin, J., Maples-Keller, J. L., & Miller, J. D. (2018). Examining the relations among the DSM-5 alternative model of personality, the five-factor model, and externalizing and internalizing behavior. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 9(4), 379–384. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000240
Starr, L. R., Conway, C. C., Hammen, C. L., & Brennan, P. A. (2014). Transdiagnostic and disorder-specific models of intergenerational transmission of internalizing pathology. Psychological Medicine, 44, 161–172. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329171300055X
Stoeber, J., Schneider, N., Hussain, R., & Matthews, K. (2014). Perfectionism and negative affect after repeated failure: Anxiety, depression, and anger. Journal of Individual Differences, 35, 87–94. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000130
Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. Brunner/Mazel.
Vollebergh, W. A. M., Iedema, J., Bijl, R. V., de Graaf, R., Smit, F., & Ormel, J. (2001). The structure of stability of common mental disorders: The NEMESIS study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 58, 597–603. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.58.6.597
Walker, E., McGee, R., & Druss, B. G. (2015). Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(4), 334–341. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2502
Walton, K. E., Pantoja, G., & McDermut, W. (2017). Associations between lower order facets of personality and dimensions of mental disorder. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 40(3), 465–475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-017-9633-7
Widiger, T. A., & Crego, C. (2019). HiTOP thought disorder, DSM-5 psychoticism, and five factor model openness. Journal of Research in Personality, 80, 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.04.008
Widiger, T. A., & Mullins-Sweatt, S. N. (2009). Five-factor model of personality disorder: A proposal for DSM-V. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5, 197–220. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.032408.153542
Wright, A. G. C., & Simms, L. J. (2015). A metastructural model of mental disorders and pathological personality traits. Psychological Medicine, 45, 2309–2319. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715000252
Acknowledgements
This article is a work of original research and has not been published elsewhere. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. This research was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Funding
This research was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed and were involved in all aspects of this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the UNE Human Research Ethics Committee (HE18-271).
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hayne, D.P., Phillips, W., Cosh, S.M. et al. Examining personality trait patterns in transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology. Curr Psychol 42, 18524–18538 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03028-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03028-8