15.2 Personality, Dissociative, and anxiety disorders Flashcards
DSM-5
lists 10 personality disorders
organized in three broader categories (clusters)
Cluster A personality disorders
statistically unusual and problematic behaviour patterns
- paranoid personality disorder (fearful)
- schizoid personality disorder (socially uninterested)
- schizotypal personality disorder (highly superstitious)
Cluster B personality disorders
unpredictable and unusual emotional reaction and emotion-related behaviour patterns
- antisocial personality disorder (no remorse)
- borderline “ “ (wildly fluctuate from +to-emotional states)
- Histrionic “ “ (outrageous types who must always ve the centre of attention)
- Narcissistic “ “
Cluster C Personality disorders
highly anxious and inhibited behaviour patterns
- avoidant
- dependent
- OCD
Personality disorder not otherwise specified
-if not known which cluster or which disorder
Borderline personality Disorder (BDP)
involves erratic fluctuations between intense emotional states
- ppl with BDP have great difficulty maintaining long term social relationships
- BDP unpredictably experience life in extreme positive and negative reactions
- those with BDP are very prone to be possessive and to manipulate friends and romantic partners as a way to control their jealousy and fears of abandonment
- BDP is though to be the result of particularly abusive, inconsistent or neglectful parenting
- Those with BDP tend to manage their extreme emotional experiences with self destructive behaviours, like cutting or substance abuse
Narcissistic personality disorder (NDP)
those with NPD consider themselves as better and far more important than other people
-Ppl with NPD demand to be the centre of everyones attention
-ppl with NPD are also very insecure about threats to their position of superiority
ppl with NPD think of themselves as better, so they consider themselves as entitled to more of everything than everyone else
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Histrionic personality disorder (HPD)
- prone to very dramatic emotional expressions with the objective of always being the centre of attention
- charming, provocative and outrageous, these people have a toolkit that allows them to pull focus in any situation
- the need to always be the enter of attention makes ppl with HPD prone to engage in risky and self destructive behaviour
- fulfilling their need for attention means that ppl with HPD will develop skills to selfishly manipulate and control others
- They will also tend to be aggressive at defending against threats to their role as the most popular and notorious person around
antisocial personalty disorder (ADP)
these ppl utterly lack concern for other ppls perspective or feelings
- they are chronically selfish and will lie, cheat, steal, and abuse others to achieve their goals
- they will be cruel and cause pain to other ppl and animals, without any remorse
- the clever ones avoid getting caught either by covering their tracks, getting power and abusing it, engaging in intimidation, or by exploiting loopholes
- ppl with APD do not respond very much to stimuli that cause stress rxns in most ppl
- as a result, ppl with APD do not experience any forms of punishment as a deterrent
- their low baseline for experiencing stimulation makes them prone to engage in extreme, dangerous, and sometimes horrifically violent behaviours
- remorseless mass murderers, like Charles Manson and ted bundy are two of the most famous APD individuals
psychological influences on cluster b personality disorders
- underneath their symptoms, ppl with narcissistic and histrionic personality disorder seem to possess low confidence and the fear that they are inherently defective or worthless
- a lack of self confidence also underlies BPD (as well as the lack of a sense of self that is separate from moment to moment experiences)
- the absence of normal stress response seems to be a critical underlying feature of antisocial personality disorder
environmental influences on cluster b
For all 4 disorders, childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or neglect are major risk factors
-APD might reflect a numbness that comes from a childhood of being treated with extreme cruelty, as though they are merely an object to be exploited without concern for their feelings
Biological influences on cluster b
researchers also consider the genes a person inherited from their parents as a major factor in their development of a personality disorder such as genes that generate particularly high responsiveness in emotion-related brain areas, in the case of HBP, BPD, and NPD
Co-Morbidity
when a person possesses the features of more than one mental disorder
-it can be difficult to determine the root cause of personality disorder symptoms bc ppl with those disorders tend also to have other metal disorders, such as drug or alcohol addiction
Dissociative disorders
these involve a severe disconnection bw a persons conscious awareness and their feelings, behaviours or memories
Dissociative fugue
occurs when a person loses large chunks of their identity and personal history, in the absence of any neurological damage
Depersonalization disorder
when an individual develops the strong impression that they are not actually a part of their own body
dissociative amnesia
when a person loses their memory for significant chunks of their life experience, w/o any neurological basis fro explaining it
Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
occurs when a person experiences their personality as having divided into separate entities, called alters
-the disorder is thought to emerge as a strategy for protecting part of ones consciousness from the pain of emotionally traumatic experiences
Skeptics are concerned that (DID)…
might be instilled w/in a person by therapists looking for multiple personalities in patients who did not start off with more than one
Cook country Illinois feb 204
Elizabeth gale entered therapy in 1936 for mild depression and came to believe that she had multiple personality disorder and was a part of an intergenerational stanic cult that abused children. through the course of therapy, Ms. Gale also came to believe that she had bred children for the cult who were then sacrificed and cannibalized. she recieved $7.5 million in her malpractice suit against the therapist and doctors who treated her
could psychotherapist be causing dissociative identity disorder?
psychotherapy is a powerful social context in which there is a distinct power imbalance
-DID was never diagnose in japan until Japanese psychologist learned about it from North american psychologists after 1990
Anxiety disorders
Characterized by fear responses that are out of proportion to the true threat posed by the sources of ones fear
Fight or flight response
fear is designed to get us energized to respond to actual threat to our survival
generalize anxiety disorder (GAD)
individuals with this disorder react with intense fear to normal daily stressors/life’s challenges
panic disorder
the state of anxiety is not constant, but it occurs in extreme unpredictable burst of fear and dread call panic attacks
agoraphobia
occurs when a persons fear of having a panic attack in public causes them to avoid public spaces
specific phobias
are when an individual possesses extreme, irrational fear of particular objects, activities or organisms
social phobias
chronic concerns over being judged negatively by others and a constant fear of being publicly humiliated
-this will result in extreme discomfort in crowds, and when the individual thinks it will be difficult to quickly escape social situations
anxiety disorders
generate a vicious cycle
- i wont know what to say, they’ll think I’m boring and stupid
- avoidance of social situations
- anxiety/embarassment
-ex. i’m terrified of snakes-i know ill completely avoid snakes-oh no its a snake-i’m terrified of snakes
exposure
to the source of ones fears is the best way to overcome those fears
OCD
involves a combo of irrational, persistent thoughts (or obsessions) and the irresistible urge to engage in repetitive behaviours (or compulsions)
Personality disorders
the patterns of maladaptive behaviour, emotional reactions or patterns of thinking are very resistant to change
-patterns of behaviour that are quite rare within ones culture and they are maladaptive (they disrupt the individuals or other peoples safety or well being)
