Constantinou, Matthew;
(2022)
Methodological and Developmental Studies into the Bifactor Model of Psychopathology.
Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis examines the methodological, developmental, and clinical relevance of the bifactor model of psychopathology. The bifactor model organizes mental health problems into a single dimension of psychopathology, e.g., the p factor, which captures aspects shared across disorders, and specific dimensions, e.g., internalizing and externalizing, which capture aspects shared among subgroups of disorders. Part 1 is a reliability meta-analysis of bifactor studies of psychopathology. It uses model-based reliability indices to evaluate how the variance in factor models is distributed and whether this resembles a bifactor structure. Part 2 is a developmental analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic status and the general and specific psychopathology factors. It examines the mediating role of stressful life events, and moderating role of family obligation, in this relationship. Part 3 is a clinically informed evaluation of quantitative models of psychopathology, covering issues related to methodology, epistemology, and clinical application. Part 1 shows that whilst psychopathology measures tend to be multidimensional (e.g., include both general and specific sources of variance), most of what may be measured in practice reflects the p factor. Part 2 shows negative links between socioeconomic status and the p factor and specific externalizing factor, and that these links are partially explained by stressful life events, particularly for children who prioritize their families’ needs and views. Finally, Part 3 argues for more process-based mental health assessments, idiographic and transactional analyses of symptoms, and a focus on the socio-evolutionary role of communication in assessment and treatment.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Clin.Psy |
| Title: | Methodological and Developmental Studies into the Bifactor Model of Psychopathology |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10156478 |
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