Interpersonal perception and pathological personality features: Consistency across peer groups

ABSTRACT This study investigated the consistency of interpersonal perceptions regarding people who exhibit features of personality disor-ders. The participants (N5 82) were college students who were assessed for features of personality disorders, using both self-report and peer nominations at Time 1. Two years later, participants attended four meet-ings in groups of 7 to 12 people for a total of 2 hours. Group discussions were designed to encourage interaction and give participants an oppor-tunity to behave in ways that might be expected from people with per-sonality problems. After Meetings 1 and 4, group members ranked their impressions of each other with regard to several personality traits and behavioral attributes. We observed important consistencies between the peer nominations collected at Time 1 and personality rankings made by a different peer group at Time 2. There was considerable convergence be-tween personality disorder features and negative evaluations by others, with participants high in detachment eliciting the most negative reactions from peers in the lab