Depressive personality disorder: a comparison of three self-report measures

Abstract

Depressive personality disorder (DPD) was included in the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) for further study. Questions abound regarding this disorder in terms of its distinctiveness from extant diagnostic constructs and clinical significance.This study examines the interrelations between three assessments of DPD and their relations to pathological personality traits and disorders in a sample of undergraduates (N = 182). The DPD indices evinced adequate convergence with each other (mean r = .60) and similar pathological personality profiles. The authors also tested the incremental validity of the DPD scores in relation to psychological functioning, after controlling for depressive symptoms and the DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs). The DPD scores manifested limited incremental validity, mainly in the form of predicting lower levels of positive affectivity. Our results suggest that this is not specific to DPD, however, as the official PDs also manifested limited incremental validity.