The Relationship Between Early Maladaptive Schemas and Cluster C Personality Disorder Traits: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Purpose Of Review: We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the literature on the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and Cluster C personality disorders (PDs). Our aim was to clarify which of the 18 EMSs exhibit the strongest associations and are most frequently endorsed in clinical and non-clinical samples with Cluster C PDs and traits.

Recent Findings: After initially screening 2622 records, 12 studies were selected with 5310 participants.

Sadism and Personality Disorders.

Purpose Of Review: Sadistic pleasure-the enjoyment of harm-infliction to others-can have devastating interpersonal and societal consequences. The goal of the current review is to illuminate the nomological net of traits related to sadism. We aim to achieve an understanding of the current empirical status on the link between sadism and personality disorders, psychopathy, the Dark Triad, and basic personality traits in clinical and community-based samples.

Through rose-coloured glasses: An empirical test of narcissistic overestimation.

Background: Grandiosity is designated as a hallmark trait of narcissism. The current study tested whether narcissistic traits are related to overestimation of a range of agentic performances.

Method: Eighty-five non-patients executed six objective tasks to assess their level of (emotional) intelligence, first impression, attractiveness, social skills and learning performance.

The relationship between adult reactive and proactive aggression, hostile interpretation bias, and antisocial personality disorder.

Reactive aggression (RA) refers to angry responses to provocation or frustration, while proactive aggression (PA) denotes nonemotional, instrumental, and unprovoked aggression. The current study examined personality-related and cognitive correlates of both aggressive types. Respectively, the predictive values of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and of hostile interpretation bias, which is the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli in a hostile manner, were studied.

The state dependency of cognitive schemas in antisocial patients.

Patients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) typically report little psychopathology. Recent findings also showed this group to report high levels of healthy cognitions. Such a non-deviant cognitive profile might merely characterize ASPD under neutral assessment conditions.

Disentangling the relationship between different types of childhood maltreatment and personality disorders.

This study investigated the relationship between five forms of childhood maltreatment (sexual, physical and emotional abuse, emotional and physical neglect) and 10 personality disorders (PDs). PDs were assessed by means of SCID II, and childhood maltreatment was retrospectively measured with the Interview for Traumatic Events in Childhood. Both PDs and childhood maltreatment were expressed continuously, and relations were assessed by means of structural equation modelling in a sample of 409 participants.

Reliability and validity of the short Schema Mode Inventory (SMI).

Background: This study presents a new questionnaire to assess schema modes: the Schema Mode Inventory (SMI).

Method: First, the construction of the short SMI (118 items) was described. Second, the psychometric properties of this short SMI were assessed.

Inter-rater reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) and Axis II Disorders (SCID II).

This study simultaneously assessed the inter-rater reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Axis I (SCID I) and Axis II disorders (SCID II) in a mixed sample of n = 151 inpatients and outpatients, and non-patient controls. Audiotaped interviews were assessed by independent second raters blind for the first raters' scores and diagnoses. Categorical inter-rater reliability was assessed for 12 Axis I disorders of SCID I, while both categorical and dimensional inter-rater reliability was tested for all Axis II disorders.

Emotional, cognitive and physiological correlates of abuse-related stress in borderline and antisocial personality disorder.

Childhood abuse is an important precursor of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The current study compared the emotional reactivity to abuse-related stress of these patients on a direct and an indirect level. Changes in self-reported affect and schema modes, psychophysiology and reaction time based cognitive associations were assessed following confrontation with an abuse-related film fragment in patients with BPD (n=45), ASPD (n=21), Cluster C personality disorder (n=46) and non-patient controls (n=36).

A comparative study of patients and therapists' reports of schema modes.

The current study assesses whether patients and therapists report similar levels of schema modes, one of the central features in Schema-Focused Therapy. Patient's self-report and therapists' report on an abbreviated Schema Mode Inventory were compared in a sample of 92 patients with antisocial, borderline or cluster C personality disorder. Results indicate a markedly stronger self-therapist discrepancy in mode rating in antisocial patients than in borderline and cluster C patients.