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Psychopathology  refers to the broad catego -
ry of emotional and behavioral disturbances 
in social, psychological, or occupational 
functioning, often described in terms of psy -
chiatric disorders and symptoms (e.g., in the 
fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statisti -
cal Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM-5]; 
American Psychiatric Association, 2013). 
Broadly speaking, psychopathology can be 
characterized in three general areas: (1) in -
ternalizing disorders, indexed by internal 
distress (e.g., sadness and anxiety), (2) ex -
ternalizing disorders, indexed by externally 
disinhibited behaviors (e.g., aggression and 
substance use), and (3) thought disorders, 
indexed by cognitive and perceptual distur -
bances (e.g., psychosis) (e.g., Kotov, Rug -
gero, et al., 2011). Notably, this overarch -
ing structure maps onto models of normal 
personality in robust and meaningful ways 
(Kotov et al., 2017; Widiger et al., 2019). 
Thus, we use these broad categories to or -
ganize and synthesize the content in this 
chapter (intentionally excluding personality 
disorders, which are covered by Widiger & 
Oltmanns, Chapter 36, this volume).
Research at the intersection of personal -
ity and psychopathology is a vibrant and 
growing area. Over the past 15 years, re -
search on personality and psychopathol -ogy has increased from just over 8,000 new 
research products in 2001 to over 20,000 
new research products every year for the 
past 5 years, based on cited works indexed 
in Google Scholar (see Figure 35.1). In this 
growing area, the overall number of pub -
lished findings and theoretical writings is 
enormous. In this chapter, we first review 
the various ways in which personality traits 
are associated with psychopathology and 
briefly summarize the most common causal 
models of personality–  psychopathology as -
sociations. We then highlight several areas 
of particular interest in the broader field: 
personality as a framework for psychopa -
thology; personality as it relates to structur -
al models of psychopathology; developmen -
tal considerations; and clinical utility and 
applications of personality.
How Is Personality Related 
to Psychopathology?
In this section, we briefly summarize 
personality–  psychopathology associations 
separately for internalizing disorders, exter -
nalizing disorders, and thought problems. 
The vast majority of research on personal -
ity and psychopathology has been descrip -CHAPTER 35
Personality and  Psychopathology
Jennifer L. Tackett  
Stephanie  N. Mullins -Sweatt