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Maternal personality plays a role in how a mother parents her children and adolescents. Current trait-based measures of personality are acceptable for use in maternal samples, but the presence or absence of given personality traits might not be enough to describe how personality relates to parenting. The Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) could serve as a solution, as it was designed to capture level of dysfunction in personality without being reliant on specific personality traits. Research, however, has yet to demonstrate the LPFS as a useful measure of personality in maternal samples, thus the goal of this study. A sample of 123 mothers reported on behavioral problems in their adolescent-aged children and their own personality using both a trait-based measure and the LPFS. Our data showed that maternal reports on the LPFS were associated with maternal perceptions of adolescent behavioral problems, in addition to being an acceptable measure of personality in our maternal sample. We also provide support for incremental validity of the LPFS in our sample, as the LPFS uniquely predicted maternal perceptions of adolescent behavioral problems even after controlling for maternal personality traits. Our results are discussed in light of the limitations of the extant work on maternal personality and add to the literature by demonstrating that the LPFS is an acceptable and ubiquitous measure of personality in maternal samples.

The Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) was used to examine effortful control (EC) as a moderator of daily interpersonal behavior. Participants (N = 240) were nonclinical young adults who completed a 7-day event-contingent experience sampling study of interpersonal perception and affect. Multilevel linear models indicated that EC moderated within-person covariation of interpersonal warmth and affect activation; high EC individuals reported greater momentary warm behaviors when perceiving others as affectively activated. EC also amplified between-person covariation of interpersonal warmth between self and others; high EC individuals generally responded to perceptions of another's warmth with a greater degree of warm behavior. Varying levels of EC predict responses to interpersonal perceptions and affect in daily life, suggesting an important dimension for interpersonal functioning.

The Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) operationalizes Criterion A of the DSM-5 alternative model for personality disorders. Yet, research on this measure has been slow to accumulate and questions remain regarding its reliability and validity. This study examined the LPFS observer-rated (OR) and self-report (SRA) versions of Criterion A in a sample of 240 students who provided psychological life history data and a variety of self-report measures. The results suggested the LPFS OR could be reliably coded, and the LPFS OR and LPFS SRA were significantly associated with outcome variables across psychodynamic and interpersonal paradigms. We discuss the implications of assessing personality dysfunction using the LPFS and the importance of expanding the research base for the AMPD model.

Criterion A of the alternative model of personality disorders (AMPD) involves the assessment of impairments in self and self in relation to other functioning and can be assessed using the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS). This study uses responses to a self-report version of the LPFS (AMPD-CAS) from 248 college students to examine the interpersonal implications of AMPD personality impairments using the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) as a nomological net. Results suggest that AMPD-CAS self-impairments are related to problems of low communion and interpersonal distress and do not appear to tap expected interpersonal problems of low agency. Additionally, AMPD-CAS identity is specifically associated with sensitivity to control, suggesting that individuals with diffuse identity find it aversive and intrusive when others take the lead. AMPD-CAS self in relation to other impairments are related to being too argumentative and suspicious of others, having difficulty connecting and caring for others, and finding others' affection and reliance aversive. Both self and self in relation to other AMPD-CAS impairments are related to interpersonal distress and misanthropy, suggesting they tap pathological aspects of personality functioning. These findings represent a first step toward fully examining the interpersonal nature of Criterion A impairments and provides preliminary evidence for the construct validity of AMPD-CAS scores.

Personality assessment is a crucial component of clinical practice, and the training and proficiency criteria to develop competence are complex and multifaceted. Like many advanced topics, the field of personality assessment would benefit from early exposure in undergraduate classroom settings. This research evaluates how an undergraduate personality course can be enhanced through 2 enrichment activities (self-assessments and a personality project). Students completed several self-assessments of their personality and wrote a comprehensive and integrative personality assessment about themselves. Results demonstrated that these activities increased interest in personality assessment, deepened understanding of course material, and promoted student growth and self-exploration. We discuss the benefits of these enrichment activities for the student, instructor, and field of personality science.

The Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Short Circumplex (IIP-SC) is a self-report measure of subjective distress linked to behavioral excesses and inhibitions in social relationships. The IIP-SC exhibits circumplex structure reflecting the underlying dimensions of dominance-submissiveness and warmth-coldness. We translated the IIP-SC into Mandarin Chinese using rigorous translation and back-translation methods with independent native speakers. University students in the People's Republic of China (N = 401) completed the translated IIP-SC and the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-2), an omnibus measure of indigenous personality trait dimensions and symptoms of psychopathology. The circumplex structure of the Chinese IIP-SC was confirmed using principal components analysis, a randomization test for hypothesized order relations, and confirmatory circumplex analysis. The validity of the Chinese IIP-SC was evaluated by examining its associations with the CPAI-2 scales. Validity evidence for Chinese translation of the IIP-SC extends its use for clinical assessment to native Chinese speakers, although ongoing work to improve its reliability is needed.

Narcissism research is poorly calibrated across fields of study in part due to confusion over how to integrate normal and pathological descriptions of narcissism. We argue that pathological and normal narcissism can be integrated in a single model that organizes around self-regulation mechanisms. We present theoretical and empirical support for this interpretation, and demonstrate that modeling pathological and normal narcissism as 2 dimensions underlying the narcissistic character can help to resolve some of the inconsistencies in the field regarding how to best assess adaptive and maladaptive expressions of narcissism.