Toward mechanistic clarity in personality functioning: A behavioral account of the self.

This article presents a behavioral account of mechanistic clarity in personality functioning (PF). PF research has substantially advanced our understanding of personality pathology by demonstrating that its nosology can be organized around a coherent severity dimension. A behavioral reconceptualization of PF as patterns of private versus public stimulus control over self-related repertoires preserves this descriptive strength while adding the mechanistic clarity and empirical testability needed for the next phase of theory-building. As the field turns toward identifying mechanisms of self and personality pathology, incorporating this behavioral perspective will expand the range of testable hypotheses and accelerate scientific progress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).