Personality Disorder and Clinical Syndrome Factors of MCMI-II Scales

Abstract

DSM-III-R Axis II personality disorders and Axis I clinical syndromes as measured by MCMI—II scales were studied for factor structure. Subjects were 253 male inpatients and outpatients. Base rate (BR) scale scores and weighted raw scale scores corrected for number of items endorsed True by regression provided the basic variables. Principal components analyses with direct oblimin rotations were carried out separately on the 13 personality disorder scales and the nine clinical syndrome scales. BR scores yielded four personality disorder and four syndrome factors, while residual scores yielded a more meaningful set of three bipolar factors for both the personality disorder and syndrome scales. Correlations between personality disorder and clinical syndrome factor scores showed that anxiety, depression, and substance abuse were linked to traits of emotionality, while disordered thinking was strongly associated with social introversion. Findings were generally supportive of Millon's premise that personality disorders are reliably associated with symptom disorders. Discussion focused on methodological problems that impact on factor analytic research with the MCMI-II.