The Safety-Oriented Personality Style or Phobicentric Psychopathology: A Cross-National Replication Study

Abstract

Our replication study embarked on in the Middle East, used an Arabic translation of the original research tool, the Safety-Oriented Personality Style or Phobicentric Psychopathology Individual Questionnaire (SOPS/PCPIQ) that was employed in the North American study, which could identify adults with more serious chronic anxiety. SOPS/PCP, described as dimensional and neurobiologically-based is the hypothesized construct from which SOPS/PCPIQ is derived. SOPS/PCP, a brand-new formulation, arose serendipitously from clinical observations and followed in the new tradition of attempting to avoid characterizing personality disorder in the categorical and non-theoretical style of the previously influential Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The present study is intended to produce results that confirm that SOPS/PCP may be experienced outside North America. The results supported the hypotheses that the Arabic version of the SOPS/PCPIQ would demonstrate adequate reliability and validity. They further showed that individuals with a history of trauma exposure scored significantly higher than the other subjects. As such, the similar results from this Arabic study to those from Canada and the United States showed that this cross-national study successfully replicated the original North American findings. Discussion addresses the potential role of this study's psychopathology to provide meaningful contribution to the recognition and reduction of global anxiety disorder and help change the current direction of personality disorder research.

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“…"This condition is believed to develop through worsening stages, from adaptive fear in normal day-to-day emotional life to pathological reactivity, of which a very serious or severe expression of fear-anxiety would characterize SOPS/PCP as a disorder" (Bickersteth et al, 2021).…”

“…Originating in a North American study (Bickersteth et al, 2018), the global march of SOPS/PCP as a legitimate form of anxiety disorder has just begun (Bickersteth et al, 2021); this was expected. SOPS/PCP's reach across centuries to the earliest days of Israel's monarchy as recorded in the Christian bible, however, is unexpected.…”