Enduring or Adaptable? A formal model and meta-analytic test of the stability of personality disorders
Abstract
Personality disorders have been traditionally framed as enduring dispositional conditions. Yet accumulating evidence suggests that they also reflect dynamic patterns of contextual adaptation. In this paper, we develop a formal framework that partitions personality stability into two components: an enduring portion (which is retained perfectly over time) and an adaptable portion (which dissipates over time, at either a fast or slow rate). After validating the model in computer simulations, we conduct a meta-analysis of 12 longitudinal investigations (N=17,785), yielding 145 test-retest correlations that quantify the stability of all personality conditions over 18 years. We then apply our formal model on these meta-analytic stability estimates to quantify the extent to which personality disorders are enduring vs. adaptable over time. Results indicate that most of personality pathology (60-70%) is adaptable over 18 years’ time, though it dissipates at a moderate rate (R≈55%). We conclude by suggesting that there is no formal distinction between personality pathology and psychopathology and outline a program aimed at studying all mental disorders as personality disorders.
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BibTeX
@misc{zavlis2026enduring,
title = {{Enduring or Adaptable? A formal model and meta-analytic test of the stability of personality disorders}},
author = {Orestis Zavlis and Michael Moutoussis and Peter Fonagy and Patrick Luyten},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/2y93k_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/2y93k_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Enduring or Adaptable? A formal model and meta-analytic test of the stability of personality disorders
AU - Orestis Zavlis
AU - Michael Moutoussis
AU - Peter Fonagy
AU - Patrick Luyten
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/2y93k_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/2y93k_v1/
AB - Personality disorders have been traditionally framed as enduring dispositional conditions. Yet accumulating evidence suggests that they also reflect dynamic patterns of contextual adaptation. In this paper, we develop a formal framework that partitions personality stability into two components: an enduring portion (which is retained perfectly over time) and an adaptable portion (which dissipates over time, at either a fast or slow rate). After validating the model in computer simulations, we conduct a meta-analysis of 12 longitudinal investigations (N=17,785), yielding 145 test-retest correlations that quantify the stability of all personality conditions over 18 years. We then apply our formal model on these meta-analytic stability estimates to quantify the extent to which personality disorders are enduring vs. adaptable over time. Results indicate that most of personality pathology (60-70%) is adaptable over 18 years’ time, though it dissipates at a moderate rate (R≈55%). We conclude by suggesting that there is no formal distinction between personality pathology and psychopathology and outline a program aimed at studying all mental disorders as personality disorders.
ER -