Gender bias in self-report personality disorder inventories

J Pers Disord. 2000 Fall;14(3):218-32. doi: 10.1521/pedi.2000.14.3.218.

Abstract

There has been considerable controversy and research regarding gender biases in the diagnosis of personality disorders, but few studies have explored whether personality disorder self-report inventories might contain gender biases. The current study investigated whether items from three commonly used inventories evidence a potential for gender bias. Subjects were from outpatient mental health clinics. Items were considered gender biased if they exhibited gender differences and failed to correlate with or, more importantly, correlated negatively with dysfunction. Thirty-eight items evidenced potential bias, the majority of which were from Narcissistic scales. The implications of the results for the clinical assessment of purportedly maladaptive personality traits and for the construction of personality disorder scales are discussed.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic
  • Female
  • Histrionic Personality Disorder / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Outpatients
  • Personality Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Personality Disorders / psychology
  • Personality Inventory / standards*
  • Prejudice*
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / standards
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sex Distribution