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In clinical and health psychology one of the most important applications of the model is its use for the diagnosis of personality disorders. Its supporters consider the dimensions to be continuous (people with disorders have extreme scores in certain personality dimensions or peculiar combinations of these - for example, low Agreeableness and low Toughness), which is contrary to the traditional medical approach, which believes that Personality disorders are distinct and separate categories. The studies carried out suggest that the model, and specifically the NEO-PI-R, can be used to detect personality disorders, since they provide extensive information on maladaptive behaviors, habits and attitudes.
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Studies show that Neuroticism and Extraversion are associated with almost all personality disorders. Poor Affability and low tenacity are also associated with various disorders.
From the Opening it seems that it is its lack, rather than its presence, that characterizes the disorders.
Another application is its usefulness in predicting how people will respond to psychological treatment. Subjects with high neuroticism respond worse to psychotherapy, as do those with low Tesón. However, subjects with high Affability have a good prognosis, as they are more willing to accept the clinician's interpretations.
The model is also useful in health psychology. For example, it is known that hostile people have a higher risk of coronary heart disease, although this does not happen when the hostility is neurotic (experience of hostility: frequent and intense experience of anger, frustration and rage that accumulates inside) and but when it is antagonistic (expression of hostility: characterized by directly expressed cynicism, insolence, and arrogance).
The first type of hostility is a facet of Neuroticism, and the second (the one that predicts cardiovascular disorders) is characterized by low Agreeableness. Education and work. In education, the dimensions of Openness and Tendency are relevant. Openness is related to intelligence and divergent thinking, so it also relates to academic performance. It is also related to the need for knowledge.
Tenacity is related to good performance, as well as high achievement motivation, which also facilitates optimal academic results. In terms of work, Tesón is the best predictor of job performance in different occupations. Openness seems a good predictor of learning ability in vocational training. Extraversion appears to be a good predictor of success in certain public relations jobs.
Assessment
Although there are some points of discrepancy, it is the model on the structure of the personality that has achieved the most consensus. Some criticisms are:
- It has focused on the structure of the personality, but does not say anything about the processes or dynamics of it. It is not specified how the traits lead to specific behaviors in different situations.
- The description of the personality based on the five factors omits very relevant aspects to differentiate individuals, referring to what people want to do or achieve (goals, projects), and the methods they use to achieve it (strategies, defenses, plans).
- The five basic dimensions of personality are decontextualized units that do not take into account the situation in which the behavior takes place. Uncommonly used terms were dropped, however the fact that they are rarely used does not mean that they are terms referring to irrelevant personality characteristics. The denotative meaning of the terms was used, and not the connotative, which has more psychological repercussions.
- The terms used to refer to someone have different meanings depending on the context, tone or relationship we have with the person described. Terms not comprehensible to laymen were also excluded, however a description of the personality comprehensible to laymen is not desirable for scientific personality psychologists.
- The designs used are practically all correlational, the dimensions not having been experimentally validated.
- In the factorial solutions found, the explained variance of the first factors is important, but that of the last ones is very low, so there is no clear justification for cutting into five factors and not more.
- Some facets that are supposedly part of a factor and define it, could also be part of another factor, in which it also gains considerable weight. This questions the supposed independence of the factors, and implies that if there are relationships between them, the number of basic factors could be further reduced.
- The most critical are shown against the same hypothesis on which all model research is based. In the lexical hypothesis, all socially important personality characteristics have to be reflected in language. This implies that lay people have to know the personality extensively. However, throughout the history of psychology aspects have been discovered that were not encoded in language. For this reason, the possibility is pointed out that what has been studied is people's beliefs about personality, rather than the actual structure of personality.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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