“Psychotic-Like Experiences as a Personality Trait”

Focus of the Topical Issue, Aims, and Scope

There is an ongoing debate whether the domain of psychotic-like experiences can be conceptualized as a basic personality trait that is separate from the domain traits defined by the current personality models such as Big Five or HEXACO – Honesty, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness (Ashton & Lee, 2020; DeYoung et al., 2012; Knezevic et al., 2017; Widiger & Crego, 2019). Substantial evidence supports the claim that psychotic-like phenomena have the same content and meaning in clinical and nonclinical populations, i.e., that they are better conceptualized as dimensions than discrete illnesses. It is also widely accepted that this dispositional tendency contains subdimensions. Despite these arguments, there are still disagreements on the content of the domain and the number of its subdimensions. The most notable disagreements exist regarding the issue of the separateness of this domain from other personality traits: Some authors claim that the current personality models cannot accommodate psychotic-like phenomena, suggesting that these models should be complemented by the proneness to psychotic-like experiences (e.g., Knezevic et al., 2017); others claim that psychotic-like phenomena are already part of the existing trait taxonomies, more precisely, that they represent a high level of openness (e.g., DeYoung et al., 2012); some argue that such a dimension is relevant only for maladaptive personality variations (Krueger et al., 2012).

Most authors would agree that defining features of a construct to be conceptualized as a basic personality trait are (a) some level of broadness, (b) coherent hierarchical organization of its subdimensions across various groups, including clinical and nonclinical populations, (c) demonstration that the trait is not reducible to the other personality traits at the same hierarchical level, (d) developmental stability, (e) incremental relevance for various everyday mal(adaptive) behaviors, and (f) the existence of a unique mechanism driving the individual differences along the trait and the neural systems linked to such a mechanism.

The topics of interest for contributed papers include, but are not limited to the investigation of:

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  the contents of the domain (charting the structure of its subdimensions, i.e., convergent validity);
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  the factorial separateness of the domain from other personality traits (discriminant validity);
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  the robustness of the personality structure complemented by this domain across various segments of the population, including clinical/nonclinical groups and cross-cultural studies (factorial invariance);
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  the longitudinal stability of psychotic-like phenomena;
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  the incremental validity in predicting various everyday adaptive and maladaptive behaviors;
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  the psychological (endophenotypic) mechanism(s) that might explain individual differences on this dimension (such as proneness to illusory perceptions or impairment in the processing of contextual information);
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  the neural system(s) linked to this dimension; and
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  the conceptual and empirical differences and similarities between the domain of psychotic-like phenomena and openness.

Submissions can be of empirical or theoretical nature, encompassing experimental, observational, and meta-analytic research, systematic or narrative reviews or proposals for new theories, models, frameworks of science communication, as well as new developments in related assessments and methodology. Further kinds of submissions include Registered Reports, Research Spotlights, Horizons, and Opinion articles (see the Instructions for Authors: https://www.hogrefe.com/us/journal/zeitschrift-fuer-psychologie). Submissions have to be in accordance with the Open Science Policy of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie (https://bit.ly/3dSf5zy). We encourage researchers to consider the submission of registered reports or otherwise preregistered projects for hypothesis-testing studies (although this is not a necessity), and we encourage the submission of replication studies.

How to Submit

There is a two-stage submissions process. Initially, interested authors are requested to submit extended abstracts of their proposed papers. Authors of the selected abstracts will then be invited to submit full papers. All papers will undergo blind peer review.

Timeline

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  October 15, 2023: Abstract submissions due
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  November 15, 2023: Deadline for abstract selection and call for full papers
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  February 15, 2024: Full paper submissions due
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  April 15, 2024: Guest editors’ feedback to authors of full paper submissions
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  May 15, 2024: Deadline for revised manuscripts
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  May 31, 2024: Editorial decision about acceptance/refusal of revised papers
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  June 15, 2025: Final papers sent to publisher’s office
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  Issue 4/2024: Publication of topical issue

About the Journal

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie, founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007, it is published in English and devoted to publishing topical issues that provide state-of-the-art reviews of current research in psychology. For more detailed information about the journal, please visit the official website at http://www.hgf.io/zfp