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Many studies have examined the correlates and factor structure of the conduct disorder (CD) criteria in child and adolescent samples, finding that the set of behaviors defining CD are heterogeneous in nature. However, the factor structure of the CD criteria has not been examined in adults, even though the CD criteria often must be assessed retrospectively when diagnosing antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood. To advance understanding of assessing CD behaviors retrospectively in adults, we present factor analytic and correlational results from a large sample of adult outpatients (N = 1,793). Our results indicate that CD ratings are defined by at least two latent factors of Rule Violation (e.g., curfew violations) and Aggression (e.g., using a weapon). Ratings of aggressive behaviors tended to show somewhat stronger associations with other externalizing psychopathology than did rule violation ratings. Furthermore, CD dimensions identified in our factor analyses correlated robustly with ASPD but correlated just as strongly with diagnostic ratings of other externalizing psychopathology such as substance use history. We discuss how these findings from a large adult sample parallel results from child and adolescent samples indicating that the CD criteria are defined by distinct dimensions. Furthermore, we interpret these findings within the context of other recent studies suggesting that a CD history may not be a specific precursor to ASPD in adulthood.

Maladaptive experiences of negative mood states and difficulties regulating them, collectively referred to here as “negative affective dysfunction,” are linked robustly to many disorders. Despite negative affective dysfunction being a non-specific psychopathology feature, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) introduced new (a) disorders and (b) features to existing disorders intended to capture manifestations of negative affective dysfunction. This theoretical article highlights why these additions may exacerbate issues concerning disorder overlap and differential diagnosis. Specific examples are provided to support this viewpoint, including potential consequences of emphasizing negative affective dysfunction within the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnostic criteria. Although researchers likely will continue to disagree about how to best classify negative affective dysfunction (e.g., using dimensions versus categories), it is argued that we can reach common ground as a field by recognizing that caution is needed when proposing new DSM additions to capture non-specific psychopathology features.

The Mood Disorder Questionnaire is a screening measure for bipolar disorder, previously found to comprise separate Positive and Negative Activation subscales. We sought to replicate these factors and examine their associations with a range of psychopathology. To further explicate the nature of Negative Activation, we examined associations with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, a measure of emotion dysregulation. The sample consisted of 1,787 participants from an outpatient treatment facility. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the existence of Positive and Negative Activation subscales. Logistic regressions, as hypothesized, found that Positive Activation was positively associated only with bipolar disorder, while Negative Activation was associated with almost all disorders. The Impulse and Goals subscales of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale were uniquely associated with Negative Activation, suggesting it may specifically assess impulsive behavior in emotional situations. The findings suggest that it may be important to attend to both Mood Disorder Questionnaire subscales.

We explore the implications of a hierarchical structure, consisting of (a) the higher order dimensions of nonspecific Positive Activation and Negative Activation and (b) multiple specific negative affects (e.g., fear, sadness, and anger) and positive affects (e.g., joviality, self-assurance, and attentiveness) at the lower level. Emotional blends of the same valence (e.g., simultaneously experiencing both fear and sadness) are an essential part of this structure and form the basis of the higher order Negative and Positive Activation dimensions. Mixed cross-valence emotions (e.g., feeling both nervous and alert) are not central to this hierarchical scheme but are compatible with it. We examine the frequency of pure emotional states, same-valence emotional blends, and cross-valence mixed emotions in a large momentary mood sample.

We aimed to determine which, if any, features distinguish antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders (ASPD and NPD), two overlapping externalizing disorders.A large sample of outpatients (N = 2,149) completed interview measures assessing personality pathology, other psychopathology, and impairment. The structure of antisocial and narcissistic traits was examined using both exploratory bifactor and traditional exploratory factor analytic approaches, and we examined relations for our emergent factors.Factor analytic results indicated that most narcissistic and antisocial traits were strongly overlapping, although some features emerged as relatively distinct (e.g., arrogance defining NPD). Factors modeling our specific bifactor dimensions showed very weak psychopathology and impairment relations.The structure of ASPD and NPD traits does not align neatly with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) Section II conceptualizations, Regardless of the factor analytic approach used. Our findings also indicate that specific dimensions defining these PDs show modest predictive power after accounting for a general externalizing dimension.

There has been growing interest in studying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood as a result of research indicating that ADHD often persists into adulthood and frequently is comorbid with other psychiatric disorders. Adult ADHD symptoms are most commonly assessed via self-report, but prior research examining the structure of self-reported adult ADHD symptoms has yielded discrepant results. Explicating the factor structure of ADHD symptom measures is essential to determine if such self-report measures assess symptom dimensions showing distinctive relations with other psychopathology and psychosocial functioning. Consequently, we examined the structure of adult ADHD symptoms in a large sample of adult outpatients (N = 1,094). Symptoms were assessed via the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS; Kessler et al., 2005), which has become the most widely used self-report ADHD measure. Additionally, we extended prior research by examining the relations for emergent ADHD dimensions with other psychopathology and psychosocial impairment. Results indicated that the ASRS's items define a bifactor structure with specific dimensions of inattentiveness, motor hyperactivity/impulsivity, and verbal hyperactivity/impulsivity. Our results indicate that specific ADHD factors show distinctive relations in some ways. For example, verbal hyperactivity/impulsivity showed negative relations with major depressive disorder, whereas inattentiveness showed positive relations with major depression. These results highlight the need for future research determining the extent to which making distinctions among various ADHD symptom types (i.e., distinguishing motor and verbal hyperactivity/impulsivity) is empirically warranted and clinically useful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

This study sought to explicate the strength and direction of the relations between specific facets of positive affectivity (joviality, self-assurance, attentiveness, and serenity) and a broad range of psychopathology. Internalizing, externalizing, mania, and psychoticism were assessed using both self-report and interview measures in a diverse community sample (N = 255; Mage = 45.1 years; 58.4 % African American, 33.3 % Caucasian). Our results indicated that these positive affectivity facets demonstrated distinctive patterns of relations with psychopathology and exhibited incremental predictive power beyond that explained by negative affectivity. In particular, self-assurance displayed notable positive relations with externalizing and mania, emerging as a somewhat maladaptive variant of positive affectivity. Joviality also related positively to manic symptoms. In contrast, serenity and attentiveness related negatively to such indicators and to psychopathology more generally. These data provide strong evidence that incremental information is gained by examining positive affectivity–psychopathology relations at the facet level.

The primary goal of this study was to explicate the construct validity of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) by examining their relations both to each other and to measures of personality and psychopathology in a community sample ( N = 255). Structural evidence indicates that the NPI is defined by Leadership/Authority, Grandiose Exhibitionism, and Entitlement/Exploitativeness factors, whereas the HPS is characterized by specific dimensions reflecting Social Vitality, Mood Volatility, and Excitement. Our results establish that (a) factor-based subscales from these instruments display divergent patterns of relations that are obscured when relying exclusively on total scores and (b) some NPI and HPS subscales more clearly tap content specifically relevant to narcissism and mania, respectively, than others. In particular, our findings challenge the construct validity of the NPI Leadership/Authority and HPS Social Vitality subscales, which appear to assess overlapping assertiveness content that is largely adaptive in nature.

We aimed to establish the personality and psychopathology correlates of (1) misrepresenting oneself or deceiving others online and (2) seeking meaningful companionship through online relationships. In Study 1 (N = 300; community sample), we sought to determine (1) if we could differentiate these two dimensions and (2) whether they showed distinct correlates. Study 2 served as an opportunity to refine our assessment of these dimensions and to explicate their correlates in another community sample (N = 294). In Study 2, we created two scales, one which we labeled Online Deception (e.g., self-misrepresentation to others online) and the other Online Intimacy (e.g., turning to the internet for meaningful social interaction); we collectively titled these scales the Measures of Online Deception and Intimacy (MODI). Although Online Intimacy related weakly to most personality and psychopathology measures, Online Deception showed notable negative associations with conscientiousness and agreeableness and positive associations with neuroticism. Furthermore, it associated positively with both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Our findings represent a first step toward understanding how individual differences in personality and psychopathology can be used to predict online deception and intimacy, and we hope that future research will explore the correlates of these dimensions further.

The goals of this study were to explicate adult ADHD’s relations with personality at both the domain and facet levels and to examine its associations with other psychological symptoms. Community members (N = 294) completed measures assessing ADHD inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms, five-factor model personality domains and facets, and other internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Inattentiveness showed strong negative relations with conscientiousness and extraversion and strong positive relations with neuroticism; in contrast, hyperactivity/impulsivity related negatively to agreeableness, positively to extraversion, and weakly to neuroticism. Whereas inattentiveness emerged as a positive predictor of internalizing psychopathology—and depression in particular—hyperactivity/impulsivity related weakly to internalizing but more strongly to externalizing psychopathology. Thus, inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms showed differential relations with personality—at both the domain and facet levels—and with other psychological symptoms. These results demonstrate the value in examining ADHD’s relations with personality facets and with a wide range of psychopathology within the same study.

The goal of this study was to explicate how the lower order facets of extraversion are related to psychopathology. We used a "bottom-up" approach in which specific extraversion scales from 3 comprehensive personality inventories were used to model these facets as latent factors. We collected both self-report and interview measures of a broad range of psychopathology from a large community sample. Replicating previous findings using a similar approach (Naragon-Gainey & Watson, 2014; Naragon-Gainey, Watson, & Markon, 2009), structural analyses yielded four factors: Positive Emotionality, Sociability, Assertiveness, and Experience Seeking. Scores on these latent dimensions were related to psychopathology in correlational analyses and in two sets of regressions (the first series used the four facets as predictors; the second included composite scores on the other Big Five domains as additional predictors). These results revealed a striking level of specificity. As predicted, Positive Emotionality displayed especially strong negative links to depressive symptoms and diagnoses. Sociability also was negatively related to psychopathology, showing particularly strong associations with indicators of social dysfunction and the negative symptoms of schizotypy (i.e., social anxiety, social aloofness, and restricted affectivity). Assertiveness generally had weak associations at the bivariate level but was negatively related to social anxiety and was positively correlated with some forms of externalizing. Finally, Experience Seeking had substantial positive associations with a broad range of indicators related to externalizing and bipolar disorder; it also displayed negative links to agoraphobia. These differential correlates demonstrate the importance of examining personality-psychopathology relations at the specific facet level.

Background DSM-5 introduced the anxious distress specifier in recognition of the clinical significance of anxiety in depressed patients. Recent studies that supported the validity of the specifier did not use measures that were designed to assess the criteria of the specifier but instead approximated the DSM-5 criteria from scales that were part of an existing data base. In the present report from the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project, we examined the validity of the specifier diagnosed with a semistructured interview. Methods Two hundred sixty patients with a principal diagnosis of major depressive disorder were evaluated with semistructured diagnostic interviews. The patients were rated on clinician rating scales of depression, anxiety and irritability, and completed self-report measures. Results Approximately three-quarters of the depressed patients met the criteria for the anxious distress specifier. Patients with anxious distress had a higher frequency of anxiety disorders, particularly panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as higher scores on measures of anxiety, depression, and anger. The patients meeting the anxious distress subtype reported higher rates of drug use disorders, poorer functioning during the week before the evaluation, and poorer coping ability compared to the patients who did not meet the anxious distress specifier. Moreover, anxious distress was associated with poorer functioning and coping after controlling for the presence of an anxiety disorder. Conclusions The results of the present study indicate that anxious distress is common in depressed patients and support the validity of the DSM-5 anxious distress specifier.

The goal of this study was to explicate the nature of the associations between anomalous sleep experiences—that is, phenomena such as hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, and nightmares—and psychopathology. The participants were 406 adults, nearly half of whom (46.3%) had received— or were currently receiving—mental health treatment. We examined a more comprehensive range of psychopathology (both self-reported symptoms and interview-based diagnoses) than has been measured in previous research; the assessment battery contained multiple indicators of internalizing (including both depression and anxiety), substance use, bipolar disorder, dissociation, and psychosis/schizotypy. In addition, we examined the incremental predictive power of anomalous sleep experiences in relation to the Big Five personality traits. An Anomalous Sleep Experiences factor was defined by 4 variables: the General Sleep Experiences scale of the Iowa Sleep Experiences Survey, plus the Sleep Hallucinations, Sleep Paralysis, and Nightmares scales from the Iowa Sleep Disturbances Inventory. Anomalous Sleep Experiences was strongly and broadly related to self-rated and interview-based indicators of psychopathology, and also displayed impressive incremental predictive power vis-a `-vis the Big Five. Anomalous Sleep Experiences exhibited substantial specificity in the self-report data: As predicted, it correlated more strongly with dissociation, positive schizotypy, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and panic disorder than with other symptoms. The interview-based analyses showed less specificity, although Anomalous Sleep Experiences again demonstrated relatively strong associations with psychotic disorders. Overall, our data indicate that anomalous sleep experiences are broadly related to psychopathology, with particularly strong links to dissociation and positive symptoms of psychosis/schizotypy.

Moods are a constant feature of human experience. Although we all experience good and bad moods, there are individual differences in the propensity to experience positive and negative feeling states. These individual differences are assessed as traits under the terms positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA), respectively. Studying the relations between PA, NA, and psychopathology has provided a basic understanding of emotional dysfunction in a range of symptoms and disorders. A substantial body of evidence indicates that general NA is a core feature of many types of psychopathology. In contrast, the relations for general PA are more varied, as it correlates negatively with some disorders but positively with others. Additionally, some research has investigated how more specific components of PA and NA relate to psychological disorders and their symptoms. However, further research of this type is needed to improve our conceptualization of emotional dysfunction across disorders.

Although personality and emotion regulation abilities appear to overlap considerably, few studies have adopted an integrative approach by examining personality and emotion regulation together. Therefore, it is unclear how much incremental power emotion regulation demonstrates in predicting psychopathology beyond personality traits, and vice versa. Results from a community sample characterized by high levels of psychopathology (N = 299) indicated that personality and emotion regulation represent strongly related but distinguishable constructs, with both showing incremental power beyond the other in many cases in predicting self-reported and interview-rated psychopathology. More specifically, difficulties in responding adaptively to negative emotional experiences displayed predictive power beyond neuroticism and other personality traits in predicting internalizing psychopathology and psychoticism. Conversely, neuroticism displayed substantial incremental predictive power beyond emotion regulation and other five-factor model traits, especially for anxiety and other internalizing psychopathology. Other five-factor model traits also showed incremental predictive power in specific cases (e.g., agreeableness and conscientiousness showed specificity in predicting antagonism and disinhibition, respectively). These data provide a starting point for developing a finer-grained understanding of how emotion dysregulation and personality traits are implicated in a range of psychopathology, highlighting the value of adopting an integrative approach of examining emotion regulation and personality traits concurrently. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mania is the core criterion for bipolar disorder, a chronic and severe psychiatric illness centrally associated with positive affective disturbance. Many self-report measures have been created to assess symptoms of, and risk for, mania but there are notable disparities in their length, scope, and content. Thus, the goal of this study was to determine the structure and correlates of a number of widely used "bipolar-relevant" (BR) measures (e.g., Hypomanic Personality Scale, Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale, General Behavior Inventory, Mood Disorder Questionnaire). Data from a community sample (Study 1, N = 329) and a student sample assessed at two time points (Study 2; Ns = 382 and 308, respectively) provided strong evidence that the BR measures were characterized by both (a) a well-defined common dimension when a single factor was extracted, and (b) a clear structure of Emotional Lability and Activated Positive Affect upon extracting two factors. The general factor showed a relatively nonspecific pattern of associations with personality and psychopathology. In contrast, the Emotional Lability factor showed its strongest relations with neuroticism and depressive symptoms, displaying comparatively weaker relations with measures of extraversion and positive emotionality. Conversely, although Activated Positive Affect also associated positively with depressive symptoms and with neuroticism in some instances, its strongest relations were with measures of extraversion and high arousal positive emotionality. These findings suggest that measures defining Emotional Lability seem to assess mood volatility to a greater extent, whereas measures defining the Activated Positive Affect factor capture an intense, high arousal form of positive emotionality. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Wender Utah Rating Scale (Ward, Wender, & Reimherr, 1993 ) has been widely used in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) research to assess childhood symptoms retrospectively, but little research has examined its factor structure and specificity in predicting ADHD versus other psychopathology. Consequently, this study had 2 goals: (a) to examine the Wender Utah Rating Scale's structure, and (b) to explicate the construct validity of this measure by relating factors from our structural analyses to other ADHD, psychopathology, and personality measures. Structural analyses in an adult community sample (N = 294) yielded a 3-factor structure of aggression (e.g., angry), internalizing distress (e.g., depressed), and academic difficulties (e.g., underachiever). Correlational and regression analyses indicated that these factors failed to display specificity in their associations with ADHD versus other psychopathology. Aggression and internalizing distress associated most strongly with indicators of externalizing (e.g., ill temper, manipulativeness) and internalizing psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety), respectively. Academic difficulties associated most strongly with ADHD symptoms, but these relations were relatively weak. Taken together, these findings raise concerns about the Wender Utah Rating Scale's construct validity, although additional longitudinal research is needed to clarify to what extent the Wender Utah Rating Scale validly assesses childhood ADHD symptoms.

General individual differences in positive emotionality are negatively related to depression, social anxiety, and schizotypy/schizophrenia, and positively related to mania. However, the structure of positive emotionality remains unclear at the facet level, as there are significant disparities in the types of content assessed across emotionality measures. This study analyzed the lower order structure of positive emotionality in two samples, finding evidence for a replicable two-factor structure of Joviality and Experience Seeking. These factors demonstrated a markedly different pattern of relations in both direction and magnitude with internalizing, externalizing, and schizotypal symptoms. Joviality seems to represent an adaptive variant of positive emotionality, as it showed strong positive relations with well-being and moderate negative relations with measures of depression, social anxiety, and social anhedonia. In contrast, Experience Seeking appears to be somewhat maladaptive. It generally related positively to psychopathology, correlating most strongly with indicators of manic and externalizing symptoms.