A call to action for explaining rather than merely predicting psychopathology

Prevailing empirical models of psychopathology describe risk for dysfunction without explaining what makes behavior dysfunctional. This actuarial approach has significantly constrained our ability to understand psychopathology and reduce human suffering. I propose a shift to mechanistic traits that explain psychological functioning: stable, recurring person-environment dynamics underlying people’s ability to satisfy their needs and make progress on goals (or not). Assessing these mechanisms requires intensive longitudinal designs that establish temporal sequencing of behaviors and contexts in real-life settings. Focusing on mechanistic traits can fuel progress on several fronts: scientifically, mechanistic traits can bridge levels of analysis from biology to society for comprehensive explanations of psychological functioning; ethically, they prevent pathologizing normative behavior by clarifying the extent to which dysfunction may be in the environment or the person; and practically, they provide a direct, logical basis for developing personalized, mechanism-matched interventions and more effective macroscale policies.