Abstract
The International Classification of Diseases–11th revision (ICD-11) classification of personality disorders is the official diagnostic system that is used all over the world, and it has recently been renewed. However, as yet very few data are available on its performance. This study examines the Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (PiCD), which assesses the personality domains of the system, and the Standardized Assessment of Severity of Personality Disorder (SASPD), which determines severity. The Spanish versions of the questionnaires were administered to a community (
The two main diagnostic systems for personality disorders have started a journey toward an evidence-based dimensional taxonomy. The
The ICD-11 personality disorder taxonomy encompasses a trait part, composed of five domains of personality psychopathology plus the borderline specifier, and a severity part which determines whether the subject is or not disordered. The trait part is based on a broad revision of the literature which identified the main features contributing to personality disturbance (Mulder et al., 2011; Tyrer et al., 2011). These features were finally established as negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, and anankastia. Although the last two domains are presented separately in the classification, they have generally been conceived in the literature as the two poles of a single construct (Tyrer et al., 2014). The ICD trait part is similar to the
The severity part consists of a single dimension that qualifies the subject as having a normal personality or as suffering a mild, moderate, or severe personality disorder. That is to say that, in the ICD-11, it is severity that determines personality disorder diagnosis, whereas traits are optional qualifiers with a more secondary role. The idea of a general severity continuum has been under investigation for some time, and its central role in the taxonomy is thought to simplify the diagnostic process and to emphasize the degree of disturbance (Crawford et al., 2011; Tyrer & Johnson, 1996). As of yet, the Standardized Assessment of Severity of Personality Disorder (SASPD) is the only instrument that has been developed to measure this continuum (Olajide et al., 2018). However, this self-reporting tool is more aligned with the initial emphasis of the ICD on harm to others and to occupational roles (Tyrer et al., 2015) than with the
Overall, this is an entirely new taxonomy that, as its authors state, “has to be tested critically and thoroughly” (Mulder & Tyrer, 2018, p. 30). However, because of the short time interval since their publication, only a dozen studies are available on the properties of the PiCD or the SASPD, and further evidence is urgently needed. For example, the PiCD has been studied in nonclinical subjects (Carnovale et al., 2020; McCabe & Widiger, 2020; Somma et al., 2020) and in patients assessed via the Internet (Oltmanns & Widiger, 2018, 2019, 2020), and thus additional examination of its reliability and validity in clinical samples is required. The structure of the model also needs closer scrutiny. On the one hand, although domains are allegedly based on the literature (Mulder et al., 2011; Tyrer et al., 2011), they have undergone nontrivial changes since then in their number and nature (Crego & Widiger, 2019; Kleindienst et al., 2017): The early traits “emotional/unstable” and “anxious/dependent” were collapsed into negative affectivity around 2014, disinhibition did not appear until 2015, and borderline was added at the very last moment (Reed, 2018; Tyrer et al., 2014; Tyrer et al., 2015). On the other hand, the original structure (Oltmanns & Widiger, 2018) has only been replicated in students (Carnovale et al., 2020) or using an informant version (Bach et al., 2020), and in no case were five independent domains found. All three studies instead supported a four-factor solution with disinhibition and anankastia located at the opposite poles of a single dimension.
A paucity of data is also true for severity, as the properties of the SASPD have only been studied in one community sample (McCabe & Widiger, 2020) and in a few small or mid-sized clinical samples (Bach & Anderson, 2018; Olajide et al., 2018; Oltmanns & Widiger, 2019). Thus, we do not know whether the SASPD, which seeks to reflect the combined impact of five different traits, really forms a single dimension or in fact forms several. Thus far, neither the only study on its structure (Rek et al., 2019) nor the evidence on its predecessor, the Standardized Assessment of Personality–Abbreviated Scale (Bach et al., 2019), have particularly supported unidimensionality. We also need to test in larger community and clinical samples how far severity overlaps with personality traits, as the evidence available up to now suggests blurred boundaries (McCabe & Widiger, 2020; Oltmanns & Widiger, 2019). It is even unclear whether severity works differently for each trait, and whether measuring severity provides any advantage over simply assessing domains. Finally, the diagnostic utility of the joint trait and severity parts also needs to be tested in studies that directly compare community and clinical samples. In this process, population norms have to be established, and nonarbitrary diagnostic thresholds should be set based on the prediction of maladaptive outcomes (Bagby & Widiger, 2020; Herpertz et al., 2017).
We expect to find a four-factor personality structure with good psychometric properties, and a partly independent, unidimensional severity continuum able to accurately detect participants with mental health problems. Given that validation in other languages and cultures is what gives the classification a truly universal scope, and that only an Italian PiCD (Somma et al., 2020) and a Danish and a German SASPD (Bach & Anderson, 2018; Rek et al., 2019) are available currently, we hope our study will further our knowledge of the ICD-11 system and help make it available to a wider range of researchers.
Method
Participants
The community sample consisted of 2,522 volunteers, 59.2% women, with mean age 39.8 years (
Instruments
The PiCD (Oltmanns & Widiger, 2018) is a 60-item self-report measuring the five domains of the dimensional ICD-11 personality model (World Health Organization, 2018): negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, and anankastia. Each domain has 12 items rated from 1 (
The SASPD (Olajide et al., 2018) was modeled after the Standardized Assessment of Personality–Abbreviated Scale (Moran et al., 2003). Its nine items reflect possible undesired consequences of each of the five ICD-11 domains: Items 4, 6, and 9 are linked to negative affectivity (losing temper, worrying, and feeling helpless); Items 1 and 3 to detachment (avoiding people and lacking friends); Items 2 and 8 to dissociality (distrusting others and being callous); Item 7 to anankastia (being excessively organized); and Item 5 to disinhibition (being impulsive). The translation procedures described above were applied to the SASPD.
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics for the PiCD and the SASPD were obtained in the clinical and community samples separately. Internal reliability was examined through Cronbach’s alphas (α) and corrected item-scale correlations (
The structure of the PiCD was examined at the item level using a range of factor analytical methods in line with current recommendations (Hopwood & Donnellan, 2010; McCrae et al., 1996; Osborne, 2014). Given that the PiCD structure has been defined previously, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted first. Model fit was examined through the comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Values above .95 for CFI and TLI, below .06 for RMSEA, and below .08 for SRMR, were considered a good fit (Brown, 2015). As a significant number of items showed at least moderate skewness (>|1|) or kurtosis (>1), all analyses were based on the polychoric correlation matrix (Flora et al., 2012) and the robust diagonally weighted least squares estimator.
Fit eventually proved to be poor, so we moved on to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) approach. Solutions with different numbers of factors from one to seven were successively retained. We used the Hull method (Lorenzo-Seva et al., 2011) and parallel analysis based on minimum rank factor analysis (Timmerman & Lorenzo-Seva, 2011) to decide on the most appropriate number of factors. Solutions were rotated to direct oblimin except the four- and five-factor solutions, which were rotated to Procrustes targeted at the previously published solutions (Oltmanns & Widiger, 2018). Additionally, these solutions were independently obtained in two random partitions of the sample, and then used as targets in an exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) analysis to examine fit in a cross-validation design. Target loadings <.10 were freely estimated. In a more demanding design, the same procedure was applied to the community and clinical samples. Replicability between solutions was additionally examined through Tucker’s congruence coefficients (Φ), with Φ ≥ .85 indicating fair similarity and Φ ≥ .95 equivalence (Lorenzo-Seva & ten Berge, 2006).
We examined the mutual relationships between the PiCD domains and the SASPD through Pearson’s correlations (
Results
Descriptives, Distribution, and Reliability of the PiCD and the SASPD
Descriptive statistics of the PiCD and the SASPD in the community and clinical samples are provided in Table 1. When calculated for each sex (Supplementary Table S1, available online), raw scores in the community sample can be taken as the population norms for computing
Mean (
The PiCD domains showed acceptable internal reliabilities of α = .80 to .86 in the community and .75 to .83 in the clinical sample. Corrected item-scale (
Graded response model analyses indicated that the SASPD and three PiCD domains—detachment, dissociality, and disinhibition—provided much more information at higher levels of the latent trait: 62.8% in the upper half versus 28.2% in the lower half, on average (Supplementary Figure S3, available online). By contrast, negative affectivity showed the opposite pattern in the clinical sample, and anankastia in both samples.
Factor Structure of the PiCD
The PiCD domains were not orthogonal, as shown by the Pearson’s intercorrelations in Table 2. In the community sample, the highest associations were between disinhibition and negative affectivity (
Intercorrelations Between the PiCD and the SASPD in the Community (Below the Diagonal,
The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) index of sampling adequacy was .93 (
Poor fit is common when applying CFA to personality structures, due to the strict requirement of simple structures and zero cross-loadings (Ferrando & Lorenzo-Seva, 2017; Hopwood & Donnellan, 2010). Therefore, following current recommendations, we applied an EFA approach (McCrae et al., 1996; Osborne, 2014). In order to examine the entire hierarchical structure, solutions with different numbers of factors from one to seven were successively retained and rotated to direct oblimin. The exceptions were the four- and five-factor structures, which underwent Procrustean rotations targeted at the originally published solutions (Tables 6 and S1 in Oltmanns & Widiger, 2018). Hull and parallel tests suggested four and five factors respectively. The four-factor solution (Table 3, left) explained 45% of the variance. The second to fourth factors faithfully reproduced the dissociality, detachment, and negative affectivity domains (
Four- and Five-Factor Solutions of the PiCD in the Whole Sample (

Hierarchical structure of the PiCD.
To cross-validate the four- and five-factor solutions, EFAs were repeated in two randomly split samples. Each solution was then used as a target for ESEM analysis in the complementary sample. Both the four-factor (CFI = .97, TLI = .97, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .05) and the five-factor solutions (CFI = .98, TLI = .98, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .04) showed a good fit. Replicability between samples was also good, with Φ = .99 across the four-factor solution and Φ = .97 to 99 in the five-factor solution. In a more demanding design, the same approach was applied to the community and clinical samples. Both the four- (CFI = .95, TLI = .94 to .95, RMSEA = .06, SRMR = .06, congruence Φ = .96 to .98) and the five-factor solutions (CFI = .97, TLI = .96 to .97, RMSEA = .04 to .05, SRMR = .05, congruence Φ = .90 to .97; Supplementary Table S9, available online) showed acceptable fit and replicability. An additional random-intercept analysis (Carnovale et al., 2020; Maydeu-Olivares & Coffman, 2006), aimed at controlling for acquiescent responding or other biases, barely improved fit. Furthermore, the method factor only explained 6.0% and 4.9% of the variance of the four- and five-factor solutions when added to the CFA models, and 2.5% and 2.6% in the case of ESEM models.
Factor Structure of the SASPD
CFA showed poor fit for the unidimensional structure of the SASPD in the whole sample (CFI = .88, TLI = .84, RMSEA = .12, SRMR = .09; Supplementary Table S5, available online). In the subsequent EFA, the KMO index was .75 indicating mediocre sample adequacy (Kaiser & Rice, 1974), but the Bartlett’s test of sphericity was highly significant (4414.5,
One- to Three-Factor Solutions of the SASPD in the Whole Sample (
Criterion Validity
Concerning the mutual relationships between personality traits and severity, all PiCD domains significantly correlated with the SASPD, in both the community (range
Next, caseness (i.e., belonging to the clinical sample) was used as an external criterion to examine whether severity was able to predict maladaptation better than and beyond personality traits. Although all variables differed to some extent between the community and clinical samples (Table 1, right), only negative affectivity and the SASPD (odds ratio = 1.15 and 1.06, respectively,
Receiver operating characteristic curves gave similar results (Supplementary Figure S4, available online). Areas under the curve were .81 for negative affectivity and .72 for the SASPD, with all other variables having limited predictive ability. The best cutoffs for these two variables were obtained by applying Youden’s index (
Discussion
In this study, we describe Spanish adaptations of the PiCD and the SASPD, which assess the trait and severity parts of the ICD-11 classification of personality disorders, respectively. The PiCD proved to be reliable and showed a consistent factorial structure, whereas the SASPD seems to require some psychometric refinement. Even so, both instruments were able to detect the clinical cases with reasonable accuracy. The general conclusions are that they can be used for diagnosis in clinical settings with due caution, and that the underlying ICD-11 taxonomy is supported. Some points deserve further comment.
During their development both the
Another point is that the PiCD domains are far from being orthogonal. This may be a drawback, as the massive overlap between traditional diagnostic categories was a leading cause of their replacement by the current classification. However, the two cases differ in essential respects. On the one hand, a moderate overlap appears to reflect the true nature of personality traits, and typically results in broader superordinate factors forming hierarchical structures (Condon & Mroczek, 2016; Markon et al., 2005). For example, average intercorrelations of .19 have been reported in Livesley’s personality model, .36 in the
Finally, not all PiCD domains appear equally maladaptive at first sight. Only negative affectivity, and to a lesser extent detachment and dissociality, can predict the SASPD, and only negative affectivity substantially predicts caseness. Disinhibition and anankastia play little or no role in either case. These differences between domains are not obvious when the correlations are examined (Table 2; Oltmanns & Widiger, 2019; Somma et al., 2020) but emerge in multiple regression (Supplementary Table S9, available online). There are several possible explanations for these results. They may indeed indicate that some domains are far less maladaptive than others, or that their harmfulness is partly due to their association with negative affectivity (Vall et al., 2015). Certainly, the pervasive presence of negative affectivity in most psychopathology has long been known (Claridge & Davis, 2001; Widiger & Oltmanns, 2017). However, the results may also highlight that the SASPD gives more weight to negative affectivity than to any other domain, particularly disinhibition and anankastia, as mentioned in the Method section. They may also reflect that caseness does not specifically identify personality disorders. Even if we assume that needing clinical care is a common complication of maladapted personalities, and that many of our patients probably present a personality disorder (Beckwith et al., 2014), our clinical sample was actually seeking professional help for a variety of mental problems; as these problems are predominantly depressive and anxiety disorders, negative emotionality must have been favored over all other domains (Claridge & Davis, 2001; Vall et al., 2015). This bias may also explain why severity, as defined by the SASPD, is a worse predictor of caseness than negative affectivity, even if the poor reliability of the SASPD may also have played a nontrivial role. Nevertheless, all the above should not obscure the fact that constructs such as “severity” or “dysfunction,” which increasingly form the basis for diagnosis, are still poorly understood and riddled with ambiguities. For example, whereas the trait parts of the ICD-11 and
Our results should be interpreted in the light of several limitations. First, we lack the borderline specifier, which was incorporated to the system as a sixth domain after this study began. Even if this decision might be more pragmatic than scientific (Mulder & Tyrer, 2018; Tyrer et al., 2019), the role and possible redundancies of borderline traits within the system warrant examination. Second, this study would have benefited from assessing other dimensional models (Ofrat et al., 2018) to investigate the concurrent validity of the ICD-11 classification. This task is currently underway. Finally, as stated above, caseness is a useful but not particularly specific criterion of personality disorder, and it should be taken as an indicator of general psychopathological morbidity. More varied and specific indicators of personality pathology need to be tested in future studies. Insofar as depression and anxiety symptoms may be overrepresented in our clinical sample, the results also need replication in other clinical populations.
In sum, the PiCD and—with some reservations—the SASPD proved to be adequate in their Spanish versions, and can be used with confidence in clinical and research settings. Even so, the current ICD-11 classification is “on probation only” (Tyrer et al., 2019, p. 496) and needs further refinement. Minor inconsistencies in the exact number and nature of personality domains need to be solved; however, evidence on this point is rapidly accumulating and it is unlikely to be a problem. Contrarily, the most consequential issue—who has a disorder and how severe—seems as elusive as ever. There is still disagreement on whether diagnosis should be based on the intensity of traits, the impact on functioning, the decline in well-being, or the probability of psychopathology, disability, or death (Zimmerman et al., 2018). It is not even clear whether different domains might require distinct definitions of severity. We hope that making the PiCD and the SASPD available to a broader range of researchers will promote much-needed conceptual and empirical advances in this area.
Supplemental Material
Figure_S1_Hierarchical_Structure_of_the_PiCD – Supplemental material for Personality Disorders in the ICD-11: Spanish Validation of the PiCD and the SASPD in a Mixed Community and Clinical Sample
Supplemental material, Figure_S1_Hierarchical_Structure_of_the_PiCD for Personality Disorders in the ICD-11: Spanish Validation of the PiCD and the SASPD in a Mixed Community and Clinical Sample by Fernando Gutiérrez, Anton Aluja, José Ruiz, Luis F. García, Miguel Gárriz, Alfonso Gutiérrez-Zotes, David Gallardo-Pujol, Maria V. Navarro-Haro, Miquel Alabèrnia-Segura, Joan Ignasi Mestre-Pintó, Marta Torrens, Josep M. Peri, Bárbara Sureda, Joaquim Soler, Juan Carlos Pascual, Gemma Vall, Natalia Calvo, Marc Ferrer, Joshua R. Oltmanns and Thomas A. Widiger in Assessment
Supplemental Material
Suppl.Mat._-_PiCD_and_SASPD_revision – Supplemental material for Personality Disorders in the ICD-11: Spanish Validation of the PiCD and the SASPD in a Mixed Community and Clinical Sample
Supplemental material, Suppl.Mat._-_PiCD_and_SASPD_revision for Personality Disorders in the ICD-11: Spanish Validation of the PiCD and the SASPD in a Mixed Community and Clinical Sample by Fernando Gutiérrez, Anton Aluja, José Ruiz, Luis F. García, Miguel Gárriz, Alfonso Gutiérrez-Zotes, David Gallardo-Pujol, Maria V. Navarro-Haro, Miquel Alabèrnia-Segura, Joan Ignasi Mestre-Pintó, Marta Torrens, Josep M. Peri, Bárbara Sureda, Joaquim Soler, Juan Carlos Pascual, Gemma Vall, Natalia Calvo, Marc Ferrer, Joshua R. Oltmanns and Thomas A. Widiger in Assessment
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by project PI15/00536, part of the Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016, financed by the ISCIII Subdirección General de Evaluación and the cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, “A way to build Europe”; PI: F. Gutiérrez).
ORCID iDs
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
