Codependency: A new personality disorder?

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

1996

Type of Work

Department

Psychology

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the concept of codependency by comparing codependent, borderline, and dependent personality traits, and to explore the cognitive schema of each of these personality types. One hundred seventy-four undergraduate students from Salisbury State University were administered the Potter-Efron Codependency Scale (Potter-Efron & Potter-Efron, 1989) to assess eight areas thought to be relevant to the concept of codependency. The MCMI-II (Millon, 1987) was used to measure dependent and borderline personality traits, and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (Burns, 1980) was used to look at cognitive schema for these three personality groups. Pearson Product Moment correlations were computed and revealed a significant positive correlation of r=. 73 between codependent and borderline traits. No correlation was found between dependent traits and codependency. Codependent and borderline personality traits were also similarly correlated with specific cognitive schema. Both showed significant inverse correlations with all seven areas of the DAS. Dependent personality traits were positively correlated with perfectionism and inversely correlated with approval and omnipotence.