A recent study compared coeds' assessment of personality traits of those they perceived as stalkers and of partners of a 'normal' relationship.

What Is Stalking?

Stalking is a crime of obsession, and is often associated with different types of psychopathology, often an axis II, Cluster B personality disorder [antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic] (Mullen 1999).

Depending on the stalker, behavior may range from overtly aggressive threats and actions, to repeated phone calls, letters or approaches. This behavior may go on for years, causing the victim to exist in a constant state of stress and fear. The violent aspects of stalking behavior often escalate over time, and in extreme cases can end in murder (Douglas 1998).

Since the more typical type of stalker is someone who has been rejected from a relationship but continues to pursue the former partner, Spitzberg and Vesler (2007), the researchers behind this study, were interested in investigating whether there are basic differences in personality between a post-relationship stalker and a partner in a “normal” relationship.

Stalking Study Methods

In this study 292 college students (approximately 2/3 female) were asked if they had ever been romantically pursued in a persistent and unwanted way. If they had, they completed the survey in reference to the person who harassed them. Respondents who had never experienced this type of unwanted attention were asked to base their survey answers on their current or most recent romantic relationship partner.

Study participants rated the person they were describing on three main categories:

Personality Disorder Assessment

Subjects used a standardized psychological test to evaluate their partner/pursuer for the presence of traits associated with the most standard personality disorders.

Stalker’s Social Skills

The partner/pursuer’s interaction competence or social skills were assessed using the Conversational Skills Rating Scale (CSRS), developed by Spitzberg.

Obsessive Relational Intrusion

ORI is a particular type of harassment in which the pursuer’s objective is to become closer or more intimate with the victim, and may or may not cause fear or perceived threat. The extent to which the respondent had felt pursued in unwanted ways was assessed using the 28-item ORI victimization short form (Cupach 2004).

Stalking Study Results

Findings related to the relationship between personality disorder and stalking are presented below. See Suite101 article Stalkers Who Aren't Strangers to learn more about the results of this research.

Personality Disorder and Stalking

The main question examined in this study was whether there is a difference in personality traits between people identified as stalkers and those who were not. The results revealed an association between the largely subcriminal stalking behavior and histrionic and borderline personality types.

Borderline personality traits include an extreme aversion to being alone and employment of extreme behaviors to avoid abandonment, whether real or imagined. Borderlines often have unstable and intense relationships and are often prone to inappropriate displays of anger (APA 2000).

Histrionic personality types have rarely been associated with stalking. In this study, the histrionic personality traits associated with stalking revolved around exaggerated emotional expression and perception of the relationship being closer than it actually was.

Stalkers Social Competence

It is often assumed that stalkers have some degree of social incompetence; however this is rarely measured in actual stalking research. This study did find that subjects perceived stalkers to have lower social competencies than nonstalkers. The researchers do point out, however, that since the vast majority of stalkers come from prior relationships, it appears that they at least have enough social skill to initiate and maintain a relationship for a period of time.

Anti-stalking Support

This article is a summary of one study on stalking. If you are interested in learning more about this crime of harassment see Psychology Prof Online or the following Suite101 articles: Stalking Law, Stalking Statistics, and Stalking Crime. You can also look to one of the many resources available to assist and protect stalking victims, such as the National Center for Victims of Crime (800) 394-2255.

Additional Sources

American Psychiatric Association APA (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR).

Cupach, W. & Spitzberg, B. (2004). The dark side of relational pursuit: From attraction to obsession and stalking. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Douglas, J, and Olshaker, M. (1998) Obsession. Scribner

Mullen, P. E., Pathé, M., Purcell, R., & Stuart, G. W. (1999). Study of stalkers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156.

Spitzberg, B., Veksler, A. (2007) The Personality of Pursuit: Personality Attributions of Unwanted Pursuers and Stalkers. Violence and Victims, 22, 3.