Validity of temperament-based clinical personality types in a large sample of psychiatric inpatients

The person-centered approach has provided numerous evidence for three clinically relevant personality types: a Resilient, an Undercontrolled, and an Overcontrolled type (RUO). The present study investigated whether (1) the RUO types could be identified within a large, diverse clinical population based upon transdiagnostical temperament factors, including Behavioral Approach and Inhibition Systems (BIS/BAS) and Effortful Control (EC), and (2) these types differed in terms of psychopathology. Self-report questionnaires, including the BIS/BAS scales, EC scale, Symptom-Checklist-90-Revised, and The Assessment of DSM-IV Personality Disorder, were administered to 2693 psychiatric inpatients. Based on a two-step cluster analysis we corroborated a Resilient (n = 959), an Undercontrolled/Dysregulated (n = 859), and an Overcontrolled/Inhibited (n = 875) type. The latter exhibited more internalizing psychopathology, whereas the undercontrolled/dysregulated type revealed more externalizing psychopathology. The resilient type showed the lowest levels of psychopathology. The present findings strengthen evidence that RUO typologies can be generalized across different psychopathologies and transdiagnostically shed light on the clinical importance of distinguishing subtypes to inform therapeutic interventions, which might possibly improve outcome and reduce relapse.