An exploratory study on disinhibition and interpersonal outcomes in daily life.

Abstract

Disinhibition is a personality trait with broad health implications and has been included in several prominent models of maladaptive personality traits and psychopathology, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, Alternative Model of Personality Disorders and the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology. Cross-sectional global self-report and clinical interview research suggests that disinhibition is tightly linked with interpersonal problems, particularly antagonistic problems. However, very little work has examined how individual differences in disinhibition manifest in interpersonal functioning in social situations in daily life. We examined how trait disinhibition and its lower level facets (e.g., irresponsibility, impulsivity, distractibility) relate to ecological momentary assessments of interpersonal interactions in daily life across three samples (total person N = 1,068, total observation N = 38,212). Results showed a consistent and positive association between trait disinhibition and negative affect in daily life (both in general and specifically during social interactions), above and beyond the effect of trait antagonism. We also found a negative association between trait disinhibition and warmth during social interactions, though this effect was fully accounted for by trait antagonism. We did not find consistent associations between trait disinhibition and positive affect or dominance in daily life. These findings have implications for the manifestation of disinhibition in daily life and the relation between externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).