An Exploratory Study on Disinhibition and Interpersonal Outcomes in Daily Life

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 DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders, the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology. Cross-sectional global self-report and clinical interview research suggest that disinhibition has a tight link 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, above and beyond the effect of trait antagonism, as well as negative association with warmth during social interactions. These findings have implications for the manifestation of disinhibition in daily life and the relationship between externalizing and internalizing psychopathology.