Content area
Full Text
Journal of Personality Disorders. 4(4), 342-352. 1990 t 1990 The Guilford Press
INTERPERSONAL PROBLEMS AND
CONCEPTIONS OF PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Aaron L. Pincus, MA, and Jerry S. Wiggins, PhD
A growing consensus in the literature on personality disorders
suggests that dysfunctional interpersonal behavior is either
the defining feature or a major component of many personality
disorders. Interpersonal psychologists have described personality-disordered individuals as displaying rigid maladaptive patterns of interaction with others that in turn elicit a limited class of responses that can perpetuate the
dysfunctional pattern. The conception of interpersonal
problems as interpersonal behavioral excesses and inhibitions (Horowitz, 1979) was proposed as an indicator of such rigid
interaction patterns. Conceptions of personality disorders
inherent in the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales and the
Personality Adjective Check List were evaluated in this study
within the context of a circumplex model of interpersonal problems. The data supported an interpersonal conceptualization of a number of personality disorders. The
results are discussed with reference to Millon's theory of
personality and the centrality of dysfunctional interpersonal
behavior for describing personality disorders.
Since Sullivan (1953a, 1953b) introduced his interpersonal theory of psy
chiatry, a growing body of psychologists has attempted to articulate the
interpersonal aspects of personality pathology (e.g., Benjamin, 1974; Carson, 1969; Kiesler, 1983; Leary, 1957; Lorr, Bishop, & McNair, 1965;
Wiggins, 1982). McLemore and Benjamin (1979) endorsed the rigorous, systematic description of interpersonal behavior as uniquely critical to
effective definition and treatment of psychopathology. Since the introduc tion of Axis II to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III and DSM-III-RAmerican Psychiatric Association, 1980, 1987), a
number of theoretical and empirical attempts to systematically describe and
From the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
This work was greatly facilitated by a UBC Killam Predoctoral Fellowship awarded to the first
author and by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant 410-87-
1322 awarded to the second author. We would like to thank Kim Bartholomew and Paul
Trapnell for their helpful comments an earlier version of this manuscript.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Aaron L. Pincus, Department of
Psychology. The University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Y7.
342
INTERPERSONAL PROBLEMS AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS 343
assess the interpersonal behavior of personality disorders (PDs) have
appeared (Benjamin,...