The typical form of such studies was that a normal personality inventory and a measure of PD were administered to the same participants and the resulting associations across the two measures were described. From the 1980s through the early 2000s, a large empirical literature appeared that focused on the correlations that exist among normal personality constructs and PD concepts. Two major foci of nearly all efforts seeking to bridge these two domains have been, importantly, to determine (a) whether the nature and breadth of normal personality constructs adequately map those thought to define the PD conceptual space and vice versa and (b) how the domains are fundamentally related (e.g., merely associated vs. Our approach, which we began developing in the middle 1990s, can be juxtaposed with the more recently proposed DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders as well as the well-established five-factor approach to PD. In this brief paper, we seek only to provide a necessarily cursory introduction to how we conceptualize this area and illustrate, in broad outline, our effort to characterize both personality and personality disturbance anchored in neurobehavioral systems. Here, we present a nontechnical, conceptual overview of our approach to this problem, advancing a neurobehavioral approach that seeks to anchor both normal personality and personality disturbance within a matrix of brain-based neurobiological systems, incorporating genetic, epigenetic, and environmental inputs. It is notable, however, that both visions of the PD/personality interface are essentially unlinked to an understanding of shared neurobiological underpinnings (i.e., neurotransmitter-influenced neurobehavioral systems) of both personality disturbance and normal personality1. Most of the latter efforts revolve around correlational and factor analytic study of phenotypic expressions of PD features and normal personality dimensions. Other workers argue to move the study of personality disorder (PD) closer to personality science seeking continuous connections between PD and established dimensions of healthy-range, normal personality. Some researchers (and clinicians) prefer a focus on the domains of personality pathology that are well-described and captured in traditional categorical diagnostic approaches that, in some instances, abut normal personality constructs. Background and Overview: The conceptualization of personality pathology, or personality disturbance, is now at a substantive crossroads.
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