We would also note that the failure of a GFP to explain the covariance among all personality factors in a manner that is consistent across several measures does not necessarily contradict the idea of a broad higher-order factor related to some aspects of personality functioning. For example, some clinical theories posit such a trait (e.g., Menninger, Waymer, & Pruyser, 1963; Kernberg, 1984), and recent research has found that the simple sum of all of the DSM-IV personality disorder symptoms reflects a strong predictor of clinical dysfunction (Hopwood et al., in press; Jahng et al., in press). One could select certain items or scales among the measures examined here that are consistently related to psychological health, scale them on the same metric and in the same direction for each inventory, and derive meaningful “personality severity” scores. These scores may furthermore relate systematically to one another across measures. Such an index could serve the applied purpose of predicting broad dysfunction without necessarily having theoretical coherence or construct validity in the traditional sense. Alternatively, such theories may have identified a factor similar to
