The Role of the DSM-5 Personality Trait Model in Moving Toward a Quantitative and Empirically Based Approach to Classifying Personality and Psychopathology

Abstract

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) represents a watershed moment in the history of official psychopathology classification systems because it is the first DSM to feature an empirically based model of maladaptive personality traits. Attributes of patients with personality disorders were discussed by the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group and then operationalized and refined in the course of an empirical project that eventuated in the construction of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). We review research to date on the DSM-5 trait model, with a primary aim of discussing how this kind of research could serve to better tether the DSM to data as it continues to evolve. For example, studies to date suggest that the DSM-5 trait model provides reasonable coverage of personality pathology but also suggest areas for continued refinement. This kind of research provides a way of evolving psychopathology classification on the basis of research evidence as opposed to clinical authority.