
The general factor of psychopathology (p): Choosing among competing models and interpreting p.
Over the past 10 years, the general factor of psychopathology, p, has attracted interest and scrutiny. We review the history of the idea that all mental disorders share something in common, p; how we arrived at this idea; and how it became conflated with a statistical representation, the Bi-Factor Model. We then leverage the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) longitudinal twin study to examine the properties and nomological network of different statistical representations of p. We find that p performed similarly regardless of how it was modelled, suggesting that if the sample and content are the same the resulting p factor will be similar. We suggest that the meaning of p is not to be found by dueling over statistical models but by conducting well-specified criterion-validation studies and developing new measurement approaches. We outline new directions to refresh research efforts to uncover what all mental disorders have in common.
Duke Scholars
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- 5205 Social and personality psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
- 1701 Psychology
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Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- 5205 Social and personality psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
- 1701 Psychology