Personality trait assessment streamlines hypothesis-driven case formulation and treatment planning

This commentary focuses on describing how global, general assessments of personality and psychopathology provide complementary information to social-cognitive measures (e.g., rejection sensitivity, behavioral inhibition/activation) in clinical assessment. We completely agree with perspectives that additional within-person research is needed to inform evidence-based treatment planning, and we applaud related efforts focused on understanding personality structure and associations using intensive longitudinal methods. However, we believe that additional within-person research is also needed for social-cognitive measures, in addition to personality measures based on trait models, as most psychometric research on these measures has been cross-sectional and/or at the between-person level. We also hope that research can continue to advance understanding of the significant overlap across personality and social-cognitive models and measures. In addition to highlighting important areas of overlap, we also describe how general assessments of personality and related constructs can provide helpful information, in initial treatment planning phases, especially for screening; strengthening diagnostic formulations; and collaboratively establishing general profiles of client strengths, functioning, and areas of need in a structured manner.