The Impact of Demoralization on the Stability of Personality Traits in a Clinical Sample

This study examined whether reductions in the severity of personality disorders (PD) mainly reflect changes in personality traits or rather an alleviation of a demoralized state involving nonspecific unpleasant affect. We used 4 years of longitudinal data from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study, in which patients (N = 419) completed the Neuroticism–Extraversion–Openness Personality Inventory–Revised (NEO-PI-R) three times over 4 years (at baseline and at 6-month and 4-year follow-up assessments). We compared the NEO Demoralization scale with NEO-PI-R domain scales adjusted for demoralization-related items to determine whether changes in demoralization are more pronounced than changes in adjusted personality traits. Results showed that adjusted Neuroticism and Demoralization changed at similar rates and both changed more than other traits. These changes were most pronounced in the first 6 months and tapered thereafter. Rank-order correlations were somewhat lower for Demoralization than adjusted traits. Our findings suggest that decreases in PD symptoms over time have to do with reductions in negative affect and that Demoralization as assessed via a subset of NEO-PI-R items is limited in its ability to distinguish negative affect from trait Neuroticism.