Personality and psychopathology: Higher order relations between the five factor model of personality and the MMPI-2 Restructured Form

•We investigate higher order relations between normal personality and psychopathology.•We apply Goldberg’s “bass-ackwards” method in a combined sample with patients and non-patients.•We find a relatively weak integration of (normal) personality and psychopathology.•Openness facets exemplify no relations with psychopathology at any level.

This study investigates the relationship between personality and psychopathology as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Minnesota Multhiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) in a combined dataset of patients with a broad range of psychiatric disorders (N = 472) and non-patients (N = 323). Results of a joint higher-order factor analysis suggest a positive affectivity and negative affectivity dimension at the top of the structure and a relatively weak integration of (normal) personality and psychopathology in combined factors at different levels of the structural analysis. Openness facets exemplify no relations with psychopathology at any level. Theoretical and clinical implications for the conceptualization and assessment of personality and psychopathology are considered.