Mowei Shen

The Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire predicts functioning styles of personality disorder: A trial in healthy subjects and personality-disorder patients

Normal personality traits, as measured by the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), predicted some personality disorders in a sample of healthy volunteers. Whether these predictions could be more pronounced in patients with personality disorders remains unknown. We administered the ZKPQ and the Parker Personality Measure (PERM), which describes the functioning styles of personality disorder, in 134 patients with a range of personality disorders and in 268 age-, gender- and education level-matched healthy volunteers. Cluster A patients scored lowest on Sociability, cluster B highest on Impulsive Sensation Seeking and Aggression-Hostility, cluster C1 (Avoidant and Dependent types) highest on Neuroticism-Anxiety, and cluster C2 (Obsessive-Compulsive type) highest on Activity. Most of the predictors were consistent across both the healthy and patient groups. The variances that accounted for predicting most PERM styles by the ZKPQ traits in the patient group were higher than those in the healthy group. Our results showed that the ZKPQ traits could specifically predict the PERM styles in both healthy subjects and personality-disorder patients. This result was more pronounced in the latter group. The most powerful predictions were obtained for Antisocial, Dependent, Borderline and Avoidant styles, and the weakest for the Schizotypal and Schizoid styles in the patient group.

ADJECTIVAL DESCRIPTORS FOR ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY TRAIT IN CHINESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Investigators used the lexical approach in which Chinese dictionaries were used to identify 48 adjectives representing antisocial personality traits. These were used to construct ratings scales which were administered to 301 university students in different geographical regions of China. Factor analysis yielded three factors labeled Intolerant, Assaulting, and Fierce and Malicious. The 10 adjectives with highest loadings for each factor were used to develop a short inventory, the Chinese Adjectival Descriptors for Antisocial Personality Trait. The inventory was administered to 448 undergraduate students in the four areas of China. Again a three factor structure was obtained. The internal reliabilities of the three were .85, .81, and .81 for Fierce and Malicious, Assaulting, and Intolerant, respectively. Men scored significantly higher than women on Fierce and Malicious and Assaulting.