ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the conceptual context of published taxometric studies performed in each research domain. Professionals placing greater emphasis on psychosocial factors tend to embrace a dimensional perspective, in which disorder arises out of psychological vulnerabilities and environmental provocations that vary in degree rather than in kind. Compared to their medically trained colleagues, many psychologists tend to favor dimensional models of individual differences for a variety of historical reasons discussed at length by Meehl. Meehl and his colleagues initially developed the taxometric method to resolve structural problems in the study of psychopathology, and to this day the vast majority of taxometric studies address latent variables in that domain. Most taxometric studies in the personality domain have examined relatively specific dispositional factors perhaps because taxonic findings appear more plausible among narrow-band characteristics. Taxometric investigations differ considerably in their approach to the graphing and presentation of taxometric curves.
