The role of the five‐factor model in personality assessment and treatment planning.

Abstract

Nearly two decades ago, Harkness and Lilienfeld (1997) published a seminal article in which they articulated the potential roles that personality assessment might play in treatment planning. Four broad areas were outlined, including how personality assessment can (a) inform where to focus change efforts, (b) foster realistic expectations of therapeutic gains, (c) facilitate effective treatment matching, and (d) enhance self-development. We review the literature examining the role of personality assessment in treatment, using these four recommendations as a framework. We conclude that more research is needed to test (a) whether changes in characteristic adaptations mediate effects of basic personality dispositions on symptom improvement, (b) the effect of personality on treatment motivation and homework compliance, (c) the role of personality in the prediction of various aspects of psychotherapy, and (d) the efficacy of therapeutic assessment techniques using measures of universal personality traits. We also assert, more generally, that although the field has progressed to some extent in the past two decades, clinical psychologists should cultivate and advance a stronger recognition of how personality assessment can be used to enhance treatment interventions. We believe positive treatment is optimized if psychotherapists or other providers of intervention are equipped with information from personality assessment to select treatment modalities and construct treatment plans.