Our replication study embarked on in the Middle East, used an Arabic translation of the original research tool, the Safety-Oriented Personality Style or Phobicentric Psychopathology Individual Questionnaire (SOPS/PCPIQ) that was employed in the North American study, which could identify adults with more serious chronic anxiety. SOPS/PCP, described as dimensional and neurobiologically-based is the hypothesized construct from which SOPS/PCPIQ is derived. SOPS/PCP, a brand-new formulation, arose serendipitously from clinical observations and followed in the new tradition of attempting to avoid characterizing personality disorder in the categorical and non-theoretical style of the previously influential Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The present study is intended to produce results that confirm that SOPS/PCP may be experienced outside North America. The results supported the hypotheses that the Arabic version of the SOPS/PCPIQ would demonstrate adequate reliability and validity. They further showed that individuals with a history of trauma exposure scored significantly higher than the other subjects. As such, the similar results from this Arabic study to those from Canada and the United States showed that this cross-national study successfully replicated the original North American findings. Discussion addresses the potential role of this study’s psychopathology to provide meaningful contribution to the recognition and reduction of global anxiety disorder and help change the current direction of personality disorder research.
KeywordsNIMH-RDoCWorldwide Burden of AnxietyDimensional Theory-BasedFear-Anxiety ConstructPersonality Disorder
Alonso, J., Liu, Z., Evans-Lacko, S., Sadikova, E., Sampson, N., Chatterji, S., Abdulmalik, J., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Al-Hamzawi, A., Andrade, L. H., Bruffaerts, R., Cardoso, G., Cia, A., Florescu, S., de Girolamo, G., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., He, Y., de Jonge, P., Thornicroft, G. et al. (2018). Treatment Gap for Anxiety Disorders Is Global: Results of the World Mental Health Surveys in 21 Countries. Depress Anxiety, 35, 195-208. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22711
APA American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Barclay, M. (2015). A Deconstruction of Borderline Personality Disorder. Psychology, 6, 1187-1198. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.69117
Benet-Martinez, V. (2007). Cross-Cultural Personality Research: Conceptual and Methodological Issues. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psychology (p. 170-189). The Guilford Press.
Bickersteth, P. (2015). The Fear-Based Personality. In P. Bickersteth (Ed.), To Your Happiness: A Self-Healing Guide to Peace of Mind (Chapter 4). Amazon. https://www.findinnerpeace.co/publications
Bickersteth, P., Zhang, X., & Guo, Q. (2018a). Empirical Evidence for a New Class of Personality Disorder: The Safety-Oriented Personality Style or Phobicentric Psychopathology (SOPS/PCP) and Impact on Personality Psychology. Psychology, 9, 1630-1679. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.97098
Bickersteth, P., Zhang, X., & Zhang, X. Z. (2018b). Gender and Age Differences in Safety-Oriented Personality Style or Phobicentric Psychopathology (SOPS/PCP). International Journal of Social Science Studies, 6, 22-31. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v6i12.3703
Bredstrom, A. (2019). Culture and Context in Mental Health Diagnosing: Scrutinizing the DSM-5 Revision. Journal of Medical Humanities, 40, 347-363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-017-9501-1
Connolly, S. D., Bernstein, G. A., & Work Group on Quality Issues (2007). Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 267-283. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.chi.0000246070.23695.06
Cuthbert, B. N. (2014). The RDoC Framework: Facilitating Transition from ICD/DSM to Dimensional Approaches That Integrate Neuroscience and Psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 13, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20087
Fang, A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2010). Relationship between Social Anxiety Disorder and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 1040-1048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.08.001
Hofmann, S., & Hinton, D. (2014). Cross-Cultural Aspects of Anxiety Disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 16, 450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-014-0450-3
Inoue, T., Kimura, T., Inagaki, Y., & Shirakawa, O. (2020). Prevalence of Comorbid Anxiety Disorders and Their Associated Factors in Patients with Bipolar Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 16, 1695-1704. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S246294
Julious, S. A. (2005). Sample Size of 12 per Group Rule of Thumb for a Pilot Study. Pharmaceutical Statistics, 4, 287-291. https://doi.org/10.1002/pst.185
Matthews, G. (1997). An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Personality and Emotion. In G. Matthews (Ed.), Cognitive Science Perspectives on Personality and Emotion (pp. 3-30). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(97)80118-5
Muris, P., Meesters, C., & Asseldonk, M. (2018). Shame on Me! Self-Conscious Emotions and Big Five Personality Traits and Their Relations to Anxiety Disorders Symptoms in Young, Non-Clinical Adolescents. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 49, 268-278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-017-0747-7
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric Theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Pelletier, L., O’Donnell, S., McRae, L., & Grenier, J. (2017). The Burden of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Canada. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 37, 54-62. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.37.2.04
Smith, G., & Combs, J. (2010). Issues of Construct Validity in Psychological Diagnoses. In T. Millon, R. F. Krueger, & E. Simonsen (Eds.), Contemporary Directions in Psychopathology: Scientific Foundations of the DSM-V and ICD-11 (pp. 205-222). Guilford Press.
Stein, D. J., Szatmari, P., Gaebel, W. et al. (2020). Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in the ICD-11: An International Perspective on Key Changes and Controversies. BMC Medicine, 18, 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-1495-2
Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. (2006). Cross-Cultural Studies of Personality Traits and Their Relevance to Psychiatry. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 15, 176-184. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1121189X00004425
Thyer, B. (2015). The DSM-5 Definition of Mental Disorder: Critique and Alternatives. In B. Probst (ed.), Critical Thinking in Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis. Essential Clinical Social Work Series (pp. 45-68). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17774-8_3
Trull, T., Tragesser, S., Solhan, M., & Schwartz-Mette, R. (2007). Dimensional Models of Personality Disorder: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition and Beyond. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 20, 52-56. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0b013e328010c838
Whooley, O. (2014). Nosological Reflections: The Failure of DSM-5, the Emergence of RDoC, and the Decontextualization of Mental Distress. Society and Mental Health, 4, 92-110. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869313519114
Widiger, T. A., & Lowe, J. R. (2008). A Dimensional Model of Personality Disorder: Proposal for DSM-V. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 31, 363-378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2008.03.008