774 Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders
difficulty concentrating tend to wax and wane in  concert with specific episodes, so they do
not form part of the trait definition. Import antly, however, symptoms and traits are both
amenable to intervention, and many interven tions targeted at symptoms can affect the
longer term patterns of pers onality functioning that are ca ptured by personality traits.
Assessment of the DSM-5 Section III 
Personality Trait Model
The clinical utility of the Section III multidimensio nal personality trait model lies in its ability
to focus attention on multiple relevant areas of personality variation in each individual patient.
Rather than focusing attention on the identification of one and only one optimal diagnostic
label, clinical ap plication of the Section III personality trait model involves reviewing all five
broad personality domains portrayed in Table 3. The clinical approach to personality is similar
to the well-known review of systems in clinical medicine. For example, an individual’s pre-
senting complaint may focus on a specific ne urological symptom, yet during an initial
evaluation clinicians still systematically review  functioning in all relevant systems (e.g., car-
diovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal), lest  an important area of diminished functioning
and corresponding opportunity for effective intervention be missed.
Clinical use of the Section III personality trait model proceeds similarly. An initial in-
quiry reviews all five broad doma ins of personality. This systematic review is facilitated
by the use of formal psychome tric instruments designed to me asure specific facets and do-
mains of personality. For example, the person ality trait model is operationalized in the
Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), which can be completed in its self-report form by
patients and in its informant-report form by those who know the patient well (e.g., a