Chapter 12 Flashcards
Definition of Personality disorders
– Overly rigid and maladaptive patterns of behaviour and ways of relating to others that reflect extreme variations on underlying personality traits, such as undue suspiciousness, excessive emotionality, and impulsivity.
Characteristics of Personality disorders
Have few biological or observable signs Can’t be detected with a blood test Three Ps patterns of behavior -Persistent (over time) -Pervasive (over people and situations) -Pathological (clearly abnormal)
Egosyntonic and Egodystonic
Egosyntonic – Referring to behaviors or feelings that are perceived as natural parts of the self.
Personality Disorders
Egodystonic – Referring to behaviors or feelings that are perceived not to be part of one’s self-identity.
Other disorders, such as mood and anxiety
Some problems with classifying Personality disorders
- Personality Disorders—categories or dimensions?
- Problems distinguishing personality disorders from other clinical syndromes
- Overlap among disorders
- Difficulty in distinguishing between normal and abnormal behavior
- Confusing labels with explanations
Cluster A definition
People who are perceived as odd or eccentric. This cluster includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders.
Cluster B definition
People whose behavior is overly dramatic, emotional, or erratic. This grouping consists of antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders.
Cluster C definition
People who often appear anxious or fearful. This cluster includes avoidant, dependent, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorders.
Cluster A Disorders (3)
Paranoid
Schizoid
Schizotypal
Paranoid personality disorder
– A personality disorder characterized by pervasive suspiciousness—the tendency to interpret other people’s behavior as deliberately threatening or demeaning.
People who have paranoid personality disorder tend to be overly sensitive to criticism, whether real or imagined.
Clinicians need to weigh cultural and sociopolitical factors when arriving at a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by persistent lack of interest in social relationships, flattened affect, and social withdrawal.
- Rarely express emotions and are distant and aloof.
- Often described as a loner or an eccentric
- The person’s emotions usually appear shallow or blunted, but not to the degree found in schizophrenia
Schizotypal personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by eccentricities of thought and behavior, but without clearly psychotic features.
- Beliefs, perceptual experiences, speech, and behaviors are odd and tend to isolate them from others because others don’t want to hang out with them
- Many are extremely superstitious and may believe in magic
- Little opportunity to check cognitions due to isolation
Cluster B Disorders
Antisocial
Borderline
Histrionic
Narcissistic
Antisocial personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by antisocial and irresponsible behavior and lack of remorse for misdeeds.
- People with antisocial personalities often violate the rights of others, disregard social norms and conventions, and, in some cases, break the law.
- People with antisocial personalities also tend to be impulsive and fail to live up to their commitments to others.
- Overwhelmingly Male (may be due to bias in diagnosis)
Borderline Personality Disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by features such as a deep sense of emptiness, an unstable self-image, a history of turbulent and unstable relationships, dramatic mood* changes, impulsivity, difficulty regulating negative emotions, self-injurious behavior, and recurrent suicidal behaviors.
- At the core is a pervasive pattern of instability in relationships, self-image, and mood, along with a lack of control over impulses.
- People with borderline personality disorder tend to be uncertain about their personal identities—their values, goals, careers, and perhaps even their sexual orientations.
- Overwhelmingly Female
- Self-mutilate as an expression of anger or a means of manipulating others or to counteract self-reported feelings of numbness
Things that you frequently see in the profile of an antisocial person
Failure to conform to social norms Irresponsibility Aimlessness and lack of long term goals or plans Impulsive behavior Outright lawlessness Violence Chronic unemployment Marital problems Lack of remorse Substance abuse or alcoholism Disregard for others Fearlessness of consequences
Splitting in regard to Borderline PD
An inability to reconcile the positive and negative aspects of the self and others, resulting in sudden shifts between positive and negative feelings.
Histrionic Personality Disorder derived from what Latin term, meaning what
derived from the Latin histrio, which means “actor.”
Histrionic Personality Disorder was formerly called
hysterical personality.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by excessive emotionality and an overwhelming need to be the center of attention.
- People with histrionic personality disorder tend to be dramatic and emotional, but their emotions seem shallow, exaggerated, and volatile.
People with histrionic personalities may:
- become unusually upset by news of a sad event and exude exaggerated delight at a pleasant occurrence.
- tend to demand more than others.
- meet their needs for attention and play the victim when others fall short.
- be self-centered and intolerant of delays of gratification.
- grow quickly restless with routine and crave novelty and stimulation.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by inflated or grandiose sense of themselves and an extreme need for admiration.
- They expect others to notice their special qualities, even when their accomplishments are ordinary, and they enjoy basking in the light of adulation.
- They are self-absorbed and lack empathy for others.
- They tend to be preoccupied with fantasies of success and power, ideal love, or recognition for brilliance or beauty.
- Interpersonal relationships are invariably strained because interests are one-sided, all about them
Cluster C Disorders
Avoidant
Dependent
Obsessive-Compulsive
Avoidant personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by avoidance of social relationships due to fears of rejection.
- They may have few close relationships outside their immediate families and tend to avoid group occupational or recreational activities for fear of rejection.
e. g., They prefer to lunch alone at their desks
Difference between Social Phobia and Avoidant personality disorder
Avoidant personality disorder is fear of rejection from the start of their life, it is more severe and characterized by even more avoidance
Dependent personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by an excessive need to be taken care of by others.
- Dependent personality disorder is linked to other psychological disorders, including mood disorders and social phobia, as well as to physical problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disorder, and gastrointestinal disorders like ulcers and colitis.
- There also appears to be a link between dependent personality and what psychodynamic theorists refer to as “oral” behavior problems, such as smoking, eating disorders, and alcoholism
Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by excessive orderliness, perfectionism, rigidity, difficulty coping with ambiguity, difficulty expressing feelings, and meticulousness in work habits.
Inflexibility also key
Persons with obsessive–compulsive personality disorder are so preoccupied with the need for perfection that they cannot complete work on time.
Their efforts inevitably fall short of their expectations, so they redo their work.
Psychodynamic Perspectives on Personality Disorders
Traditional Freudian theory focused on problems arising from the Oedipus complex as the foundation for abnormal behaviors, including personality disorders.
Freud believed that children normally resolve the Oedipus complex by forsaking incestuous wishes for the parent of the opposite gender and identifying with the parent of the same gender.
As a result, they incorporate the parent’s moral principles in the form of a personality structure called the superego.
Hans Kohut’s perspective on Narcissism
Self psychology - emphasis on processes in the development of a cohesive sense of self.
- Early childhood involves a normal stage of healthy narcissism and perceive their parents as idealized towers of strength and wish to be one with them and to share their power.
- Empathic parents reflect their children’s inflated perceptions by making them feel that anything is possible and by nourishing their self-esteem.
- Lack of parental empathy and support, however, sets the stage for pathological narcissism.
Otto Kernberg’s perspective on Borderline PD
views borderline personality in terms of a failure in early childhood to develop a sense of constancy and unity in one’s image of oneself and others.
From this perspective, borderline individuals cannot synthesize contradictory (positive and negative) elements of themselves and others into complete, stable wholes.
Rather than viewing important people in their lives as sometimes loving and sometimes rejecting, they shift back and forth between pure idealization and utter hatred.
Margaret Mahler’s perspective on Borderline PD
- explains BPD in terms of childhood separation from the mother figure.
- Mahler and her colleagues believed that during the first year infants develop a symbiotic attachment to their mothers.
- In psychology, symbiosis is a state of oneness in which the child’s identity is fused with the mother’s.
- Normally, children gradually differentiate their own identities or senses of self from that of their mothers.
- Borderline personality disorder may arise from the failure to master this developmental challenge.
Learning perspectives on Personality Disorders
- focus on maladaptive behaviours rather than disorders of personality.
- interested in identifying the:
- learning histories that give rise to the MB’s
- environmental factors that give rise to the MB’s
- and the reinforcers that maintain the MB’s
- childhood experiences shape the pattern of maladaptive habits of relating to others that constitute personality disorders.
Learning perspectives on obsessive-compulsive behaviours
Excessive parental discipline may lead to obsessive–compulsive behaviors.
Children whose behavior is rigidly controlled and punished by parents, even for slight transgressions, may develop inflexible, perfectionistic standards.
Behaviour Theory - Family Perspectives on PD’s
Many theorists have argued that disturbances in family relationships underlie the development of personality disorders.
Consistent with psychodynamic formulations, researchers find that people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) remember their parents as having been more controlling and less caring than do reference subjects with other psychological disorders.
When people with BPD recall their earliest memories, they are more likely than other people to paint significant others as malevolent or evil.
Learning Perspectives on Dependent PD
Children who are regularly discouraged from speaking their minds or exploring their environments may develop a dependent behavior pattern.
Biological Perspectives on PD’s
- Much remains to be learned about the biological underpinnings of personality disorders.
- Most of the attention in the research community has centered on antisocial personality disorder and the personality traits that underlie the disorder, which is the focus of much of our discussion because it is found in criminals.
- Lack of emotional responsiveness in people with antisocial personalities, people with antisocial or psychopathic personalities appear to have exaggerated cravings for stimulation, brain abnormalities may be linked to borderline PD and antisocial PD
Genetic factors on PD’s
- Evidence points to genetic factors playing a role in the development of several types of personality disorders, including antisocial, narcissistic, paranoid, and borderline types.
- Parents and siblings of people with personality disorders, such as antisocial, schizotypal, and borderline types, are more likely to be diagnosed with these disorders themselves than are members of the general population.
- Genetic factors appear to play a role in the development of certain psychopathic personality traits, such as callousness, impulsivity, and irresponsibility.
Learning Perspective on Antisocial PD
Youth who develop antisocial personalities may be “unsocialized ” because their early learning experiences lack the consistency and predictability that help other children connect their behavior with rewards and punishments.
Sociocultural Perspectives on PD’s
- Social conditions may contribute to the development of personality disorders.
- Because antisocial personality disorder is reported most frequently among people from lower socioeconomic classes, the kinds of stressors encountered by disadvantaged families may contribute to antisocial behavior patterns.
- Many inner-city neighborhoods are beset by social problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and disorganized and disintegrating families.
Difficulties in Treatment of PD’s
- People with personality disorders usually see their behaviors, even maladaptive, self-defeating behaviors, as natural parts of themselves.
- Even when unhappy and distressed, they are unlikely to perceive their own behavior as causative.
- Despite these obstacles, evidence supports the effectiveness of therapy in treating personality disorders.
Psychodynamic Approaches to Treatment of PD’s
- become aware of the roots of their self-defeating behavior patterns and learn more adaptive ways of relating to others.
- People with borderline and narcissistic personality disorders, often present particular challenges to the therapist such as turbulent relationships with therapists, sometimes idealizing them, sometimes denouncing them as uncaring.
CBT Approaches to Treatment of PD’s
- Cognitive behavior therapists focus on changing clients’ maladaptive behaviors and dysfunctional thought patterns rather than their personality structures.
- They may use techniques such as modeling and reinforcement to help clients develop more adaptive behaviors.
- Beck’s approach focuses on helping the individual identify and correct distorted thinking.
Linehan’s technique, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)
- Approach to treating PD’s that combines cognitive-behavioral therapy and Buddhist mindfulness meditation.
Biological Approaches (Drug therapy) to Treatment of PD’s
- Drug therapy does not directly treat personality disorders.
- Antidepressants or antianxiety drugs are sometimes used to treat associated depression or anxiety in people with personality disorders.
- Antidepressants of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class (e.g., Prozac) increase the availability of serotonin in synaptic connections between neurons and can help temper feelings of anger and rage.
