(PS7-60) The Alternative Model of Personality Disorders and Contextually-Bound Psychological Flexibility: A Six-Week Longitudinal Study

Section III of DSM-5 outlines an alternative model for personality disorders (AMPD) to promote additional research on a dimensional model of personality pathology, including impairments in personality functioning and elevations in maladaptive traits. Although the AMPD has shown promise in terms of its convergent validity, research should also emphasize associations with therapeutic change processes, defined as theory-based underlying mechanisms of change that can result in the achievement of various treatment goals. Through a better understanding of the link between AMPD constructs and therapeutic change processes, mental health clinicians will be better able to situate this model within case formulations and treatment planning. One set of processes that have yet to be examined in relation to the AMPD are those underlying the broader construct of psychological flexibility, or the ability to nonjudgmentally accept difficult internal experiences while changing or persisting in value-driven behavior.
The primary aim of this study is to examine the short-term (six-week) longitudinal associations between DSM-5 AMPD constructs and contextually-bound psychological flexibility related to a specific goal. Participants (N = 403) completed the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), Levels of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS), and Personalized Psychological Flexibility Index (PPFI) at baseline; were assessed weekly on items measuring psychological flexibility, emotion regulation, and personality functioning; and again completed the PPFI at six-week follow-up.
Preliminary hierarchical linear regression analyses indicate baseline AMPD constructs explain significant variance in the six-week prediction of avoidance, acceptance, and harnessing dimensions of psychological flexibility related to a personally meaningful life goal (Adjusted R2 ranging from .11 to .28), with the LPFS exhibiting incremental validity over and above maladaptive personality traits in the prediction of avoidance and acceptance but not harnessing. Final analyses will also examine weekly within-person associations between personality functioning, psychological flexibility, and goal pursuit. Discussion will focus on the interplay between the AMPD constructs of levels of personality functioning, maladaptive traits, and psychological flexibility, and implications for the clinical utility of the AMPD model.