Today, we have two articles that focus in part on identity disturbance. First, Kiel et al. (2025) published “Associations between Pathological Personality Traits, Functional Impairment, and Personality Disorder: Controlling for basic personality traits and identity disturbance” in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. Here’s the edited abstract:
Contemporary models conceptualize personality disorder (PD) as a combination of personality dysfunction and pathological personality traits. However, some perspectives suggest that pathological traits, along with functional impairment, may be sufficient indicators of PD. This study builds on previous research by investigating whether identity disturbance, defined as impaired coherence, inconsistency, and discontinuity in the sense of self, contributes to pathological personality trait scores beyond basic five-factor personality traits. Additionally, it examines whether the associations between pathological personality trait domains, PD diagnosis, and functional impairment remain when controlling for identity disturbance and basic personality traits. The study included two samples: 776 community individuals (344 with a psychiatric history) and 77 psychiatric patients diagnosed with PD. Structural equation models with latent factors indicated that pathological personality trait domains can be described as a combination of variance from basic personality traits and to a lesser extent identity disturbance. When identity disturbance was controlled for, however, pathological trait domains no longer differentiated individuals with PD from community participants with psychiatric histories. Furthermore, individual pathological trait domains did not demonstrate incremental validity in predicting functional impairment beyond the contributions of basic personality traits and identity disturbance.
I thought that this one is interesting in concluding that Identity disturbance (defined as impaired coherence, inconsistency, and discontinuity in the sense of self) matters more than pathological traits in predicting functional impairment. As a developmental psychologist, I tend to see universal developmental tasks (e.g., identity formation and maintenance) as critical in understanding pathology. The next study looks at emptiness.
Uliaszek, Magurno, Zedan & Fournier (2025) published “Emptiness, personality dysfunction, and emotion dysregulation: An experience sampling study” in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. The edited abstract is as follows:
Investigations of the construct of emptiness often include vague, overlapping, and contradictory operationalizations that have impacted further theoretical and empirical understanding. This includes referring to emptiness as a static, trait-like phenomenon, without measurement of the individual instability that may exist in this experiential state. Furthermore, studies often restrict the examination of emptiness to those with borderline personality disorder, despite research supporting its relationship to other disorders and to personality functioning in general. The present study sought to explore emptiness at both its trait- and state-level determinants utilizing an experience sampling design in 120 community members. Specifically, this study investigated personality dysfunction in both interpersonal and self-domains, identity disturbance, and emotion dysregulation in predicting between-person mean and instability in emptiness, as well as within-person emptiness across a 14-day study period. Results supported strong relationships between within-person sadness and emptiness. Furthermore, mean-level emptiness was associated with both personality dysfunction and identity disturbance, while emptiness instability was additionally associated with emotion dysregulation. Implications for construct clarity are discussed.
I thought this one complemented Kiel et al. in that both use community samples and each finds identity disturbance important, this time in association with personality dysfunction, to understand sadness and emptiness. In addition, because they looked at emptiness as both a trait and a state, they found emptiness instability is associated with emotion dysregulation. This suggests that we should pay more attention to identity disturbance when working with clients with personality dysfunction.