The Relationship Between Personality Organization as Assessed by Theory-Driven Profiles of the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI and Self-Reported Features of Personality Organization

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the relationships between features of personality organization (PO) as assessed by theory driven profiles of the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI (DSFM; Luteijn & Kok, 1985) and 2 self-report measures of personality pathology, that is, the Dutch Inventory of Personality Organization (Berghuis, Kamphuis, Boedijn, & Verheul, 2009) and the Dutch Schizotypy Personality Questionnaire–Revised (Vollema & Hoijtink, 2000), in a sample of 190 outpatient psychiatric patients. Results showed that the single scales of all 3 measures segregated into 2 theoretically expected and meaningful dimensions, that is, a dimension assessing severity of personality pathology and an introversion/extraversion dimension. Theory-driven combinations of single DSFM subscales as a measure of level of PO distinguished characteristics of patients at various levels of PO in theoretically predicted ways. Results also suggest that structural personality pathology may not be fully captured by self-report measures.

Notes

¹Recently, the seven DSFM items that originate from the original MMPI have also been included in the most recent Dutch version of the MMPI–2 (Derksen, De Mey, Sloore & Hellenbosch, 1996).