IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0232187.html

Higher- and lower-order personality traits and cluster subtypes in social anxiety disorder

Author

Listed:
  • Mădălina Elena Costache
  • Andreas Frick
  • Kristoffer Månsson
  • Jonas Engman
  • Vanda Faria
  • Olof Hjorth
  • Johanna M Hoppe
  • Malin Gingnell
  • Örjan Frans
  • Johannes Björkstrand
  • Jörgen Rosén
  • Iman Alaie
  • Fredrik Åhs
  • Clas Linnman
  • Kurt Wahlstedt
  • Maria Tillfors
  • Ina Marteinsdottir
  • Mats Fredrikson
  • Tomas Furmark

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) can come in different forms, presenting problems for diagnostic classification. Here, we examined personality traits in a large sample of patients (N = 265) diagnosed with SAD in comparison to healthy controls (N = 164) by use of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). In addition, we identified subtypes of SAD based on cluster analysis of the NEO-PI-R Big Five personality dimensions. Significant group differences in personality traits between patients and controls were noted on all Big Five dimensions except agreeableness. Group differences were further noted on most lower-order facets of NEO-PI-R, and nearly all KSP variables. A logistic regression analysis showed, however, that only neuroticism and extraversion remained significant independent predictors of patient/control group when controlling for the effects of the other Big Five dimensions. Also, only neuroticism and extraversion yielded large effect sizes when SAD patients were compared to Swedish normative data for the NEO-PI-R. A two-step cluster analysis resulted in three separate clusters labelled Prototypical (33%), Introvert-Conscientious (29%), and Instable-Open (38%) SAD. Individuals in the Prototypical cluster deviated most on the Big Five dimensions and they were at the most severe end in profile analyses of social anxiety, self-rated fear during public speaking, trait anxiety, and anxiety-related KSP variables. While additional studies are needed to determine if personality subtypes in SAD differ in etiological and treatment-related factors, the present results demonstrate considerable personality heterogeneity in socially anxious individuals, further underscoring that SAD is a multidimensional disorder.

Suggested Citation

  • Mădălina Elena Costache & Andreas Frick & Kristoffer Månsson & Jonas Engman & Vanda Faria & Olof Hjorth & Johanna M Hoppe & Malin Gingnell & Örjan Frans & Johannes Björkstrand & Jörgen Rosén & Iman Al, 2020. "Higher- and lower-order personality traits and cluster subtypes in social anxiety disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0232187
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232187
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232187&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0232187?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Gerlach & Beatrice Farb & William Revelle & Luís A. Nunes Amaral, 2018. "A robust data-driven approach identifies four personality types across four large data sets," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 735-742, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qingqing Hu & Yuchen Zhu & Ying Liang, 2025. "Escapist fantasy vs. digital socialization: personality traits, gameplay styles, and social anxiety of online game players in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liagkouras, Konstantinos & Metaxiotis, Konstantinos, 2021. "Improving multi-objective algorithms performance by emulating behaviors from the human social analogue in candidate solutions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 1019-1036.
    2. Yannick V. Markhof, 2020. "Divide to Conquer? Latent Preference Types and Country-level Heterogeneity," CSAE Working Paper Series 2020-05, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    3. Juliane Kloidt & Lawrence W. Barsalou, 2026. "Developing and Evaluating the Comprehensive Hierarchical Eustress Review (CHER)," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Renato Frey & Shannon M. Duncan & Elke U. Weber, 2023. "Towards a typology of risk preference: Four risk profiles describe two-thirds of individuals in a large sample of the U.S. population," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Xuechen Leng & Jinfeng Han & Yingcan Zheng & Xiaoyong Hu & Hong Chen, 2021. "The Role of a “Happy Personality” in the Relationship of Subjective Social Status and Domain-Specific Satisfaction in China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1733-1751, August.
    6. Petrik Runst & Jörg Thomä, 2023. "Resilient entrepreneurs? — revisiting the relationship between the Big Five and self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 417-443, June.
    7. Stella Stiliadi, 2024. "Personality and Individual Differences in Leadership Behavior. Α Review," Technium Business and Management, Technium Science, vol. 7(1), pages 49-61.
    8. Patricio Ramírez-Correa & Elizabeth E. Grandón & Jorge Alfaro-Pérez & Giselle Painén-Aravena, 2019. "Personality Types as Moderators of the Acceptance of Information Technologies in Organizations: A Multi-Group Analysis in PLS-SEM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-15, July.
    9. Petrik Runst & Jörg Thomä, 2022. "Does personality matter? Small business owners and modes of innovation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 2235-2260, April.
    10. Katharina Pflügner & Christian Maier & Jens Mattke & Tim Weitzel, 2021. "Personality Profiles that Put Users at Risk of Perceiving Technostress," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 63(4), pages 389-402, August.
    11. Runst, Petrik & Thomä, Jörg, 2022. "Resilient entrepreneurs? Revisiting the relationship between the Big Five and self-employment," ifh Working Papers 34/2022, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).
    12. Camille Sauvain & Véronique Ventos & Jérôme Sackur, 2024. "Beyond broad and narrow: Intermediate level traits in the personality of bridge players," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(8), pages 1-15, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0232187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.