Deconstructing Detachment: Contrasting Trait Profiles in Community Adults With Schizoid Versus Avoidant Personality Styles

The degree to which schizoid and avoidant personality styles represent unique variants of interpersonal detachment remains controversial. This study contrasted core traits associated with schizoid versus avoidant personalities in a mixed-sex sample of 221 community adults, using the five traits that comprise the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD). The International Personality Disorders Examination Screening Questionnaire was used to assess schizoid and avoidant personality traits; the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 was used to assess negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. As expected, schizoid and avoidant scores were both positively associated with AMPD detachment scores <i>(rs</i> were .68 and .57, respectively). Regression analyses confirmed that, in addition to detachment, high levels of negative affectivity and low levels of disinhibition were uniquely predictive of avoidant personality traits, whereas low levels of antagonism were uniquely predictive of schizoid personality traits. The present findings support the distinctiveness of these two contrasting expressions of detachment.