Informant-reports of personality disorder: Relation to self-reports and future research directions.

Abstract

Most instruments that assess personality disorder rely principally on self‐report. However, there are major limitations to using self‐report for the diagnosis of personality pathology. First, the self provides only one opinion. Second, like everyone else, people with personality disorders are frequently unable to view themselves realistically and are unaware of the effect of their behavior on other people. Using informant data, therefore, may improve the reliability and validity of diagnostic assessment. A review of the literature reveals that agreement between informant‐ and self‐reports of personality disorder is modest at best, even though informants tend to agree with each other. Self‐informant concordance appears to be higher for older subjects and for Cluster B traits (excluding narcissism). Further research should focus on methods of resolving discrepancies between self‐ and informant‐reports of personality disorder and determining when self or informant data are more valid.

The influence of personality disorder on the future mental health and social adjustment of young adults: a population-based, longitudinal cohort study

“…The use of an informant can improve the validity of a diagnostic assessment for PD 26 , however, as with self-description, informant reports can also introduce information bias. In addition, the concurrent validity of the SAP in establishing severity thresholds has not been previously examined.…”

Psychosocial impairment and treatment utilization by patients with borderline personality disorder, other personality disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, and a healthy comparison group

“…A further limitation is that the psychosocial functioning levels were solely based on participant report. Although informant reports also have limitations, future research may want to compare informant reports on psychosocial functioning and relationships as well as objective, performance-based measures to investigate sources of bias in reporting associated with PD status [24]. Nonetheless, levels of satisfaction reported by subjects remain an important indicator.…”

Personality Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence comes of Age: a Review of the Current Evidence and Prospects for Future Research

“…Given the continuity between PD criteria and normal personality traits, the research findings also beg the question of whether developmental changes in PD symptoms are part and parcel of the same process as the one that drives normal personality changes. Finally, it should be noted that other methodological issues relevant to understanding the PD continuity and change across the lifespan include the use of different assessment instruments and measurement error (56,98,(105)(106)(107)(108)(109).…”