Dissociative, Personality And Eating Disorders

Question 1

What are the three clusters of personality disorders?

Answer 1

• Anxiety
  ( fearfully sensitivity to rejection that predisposes the withdrawn)
  avoidant personality disorder
• Eccentric or odd behaviors,
  (such as those prompted by the magical thinking of )
  schizotypal personality disorder
• Dramatic or impulsive behaviors, such as the unstable, attention-getting borderline personality disorder, the self-focused and self-inflating narcissistic personality disorder, the callous, and often dangerous, antisocial personality disorder

Question 2

What behaviors and brain activity characterize antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 2

• Lack of conscience
• Sometimes aggressive
• Fearless behaviour

The amygdala is often smaller and the frontal lobes less active
= leading to impaired frontal lobe cognitive functions and decreased responsiveness to others’ distress.

Genetic predispositions may interact with the environment to produce these characteristics.

Question 3

What differentiate antisocial behaviour to criminality?

Answer 3

people with antisocial personality disorder (sometimes called sociopaths or psychopaths) are more socially deficient. They often exhibit less emotional intelligence—the ability to understand, manage, and perceive emotions

Question 4

What are dissociative disorders, and why are they controversial?

Answer 4

Rare conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Skeptics note that dissociative identity disorder (DID) increased dramatically in the late twentieth century; is rarely found outside North America;

May reflect role playing by people vulnerable to therapists’ suggestions.

Others view DID as a manifestation of feelings of anxiety, or as a response learned when behaviors are reinforced by anxiety-reduction.

Question 5

What are the three main eating disorders, and how do biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences make people more vulnerable to them?

Answer 5

Aanorexia nervosa (usually adolescent females)

-Maintain a starvation diet, sometimes exercising excessively, and have an inaccurate self-perception.

Bulimia nervosa (usually women in their late teens and early twenties)

-Binge and then compensate by purging, fasting, or excessively exercising.

Binge-eating disorder
Binge but do not follow with purging, fasting, and exercising.

Cultural pressures, low self-esteem, and negative emotions interact with stressful life experiences and genetics to produce eating disorders.