Using idiographic models to distinguish personality and psychopathology

Objective: While the overlap between personality and psychopathology is well documented, few studies examine how the two overlap at a lower, moment-to-moment level. We took an idiographic approach to examine personality and psychopathology processes at the individual level. Doing so offers a unique perspective by incorporating both dynamic time and structural analysis, two components that are traditionally examined separately when investigating the overlap between personality and psychopathology. Method: Two experience sample studies measured personality states and personality problems up to four-times a day over a two-week period (Study 1 N = 349, observations = 11,124; Study 2 N = 161, observations = 8,261). Results: For some, personality states and personality problems are deeply intertwined, mirroring existing between-person findings. But for others the two are separate, indicating it is possible to separate personality (states) from a person's problems. Between-person differences in levels of depression had no association with the idiographic structure, indicating that between-person constructs operate separately from within-person processes. Finally, situations that are more likely to bring out personality problems did not alter the association between personality states and personality problems. Conclusions: This method provides a novel conceptualization of personality–psychopathology overlap, bringing the focus beyond mostly static, between-person models to more dynamic, individual-level models.