Personality disorders Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a personality trait?

A

Long term pattern of inner experience and outward behavior

- traits

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2
Q

What are personality disorders?

A

Ingrained patterns of relating to other people or events that are maladaptive

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3
Q

How are traits developed?

A

Learned, inherited, or both

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4
Q

Define personality

A

An inflexible pattern of inner experience and outward behavior

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5
Q

What percentage of people have BPD? And are men or women more commonly diagnosed?

A

1.5-2.5% of people diagnosed and 75% are women

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6
Q

What cluster do odd and eccentric personality disorders fall into?

A

Cluster A

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7
Q

What personality disorders fall into Cluster A?

A

Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal

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8
Q

What do people with odd personality disorders display similar behaviors to?

A

Schizophrenia aka schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

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9
Q

What are behaviors of people with odd personality disorders?

A

Extreme suspiciousness, social withdrawal, and peculiar ways of thinking and perceiving things

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10
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of paranoid personality disorder?

A
  • Distrust and suspiciousness of others

- Interpretation of others’ motives as malevolent

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11
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of schizoid personality disorder?

A
  • Persistent avoidance of social relationships

- Restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings

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12
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of schizotypal personality disorder?

A
  • Social and interpersonal deficits
  • Cognitive and perceptual distortions
  • Eccentricities of behavior
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13
Q

Describe 4 signs of distrust and suspiciousness beginning in early adulthood in paranoid personality disorder

A
  • Pervasive unjustified suspiciousness of being harmed, deceived, or exploited
  • Unwarranted doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends
  • Reluctance to confide in others
  • The tendency to read hidden meanings into the benign actions of others
  • Bears grudges for perceived wrongs
  • Angry reactions to perceived attacks on character or reputation
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14
Q

Describe 4 signs of interpersonal detachment and restricted emotions from early adulthood in schizoid personality disorder

A
  • Lack of enjoyment of close relationships
  • Almost always prefers solitude to companionship
  • Little interest in sex
  • Few or no pleasurable activities
  • Lack of friends
  • Indifference to praise or criticism
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15
Q

How old do you need to be to be diagnosed with a personality disorder?

A

18 years old

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16
Q

What is the diathesis stress of schizoid personality disorder?

A

Higher rates of people with schizoid personality disorder who have higher rates of schizophrenia in their family are more vulnerable to developing schizophrenia

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17
Q

Describe 4 signs of interpersonal problems and behavioral eccentricities from early adulthood in schizoid personality disorder

A
  • Unusual and eccentric thoughts and behaviors (psychoticism), interpersonal detachment, and suspiciousness
  • Odd beliefs or magical thinking (telepathic, clairvoyant (see the future), ideas of reference)
  • Illusions (feels the pressure of a force or person not actually present
  • Odd/eccentric behavior or appearance (wears strange clothes)
  • Talks to self
  • Affect is flat, aloof from others
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18
Q

What cluster do dramatic, emotional, and erratic personality disorders fall into?

A

Cluster A

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19
Q

What personality disorders fall into Cluster A?

A

Antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic

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20
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of antisocial personality disorder?

A

Disregard for the rights of others and violation of those rights

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21
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of borderline personality disorder?

A
  • Instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, emotions
  • Marked impulsivity
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22
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of histrionic personality disorder?

A
  • Excessive emotionality

- Attention seeking

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23
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of narcissistic personality disorder?

A
  • Grandiostiy in fantasy or behavior
  • Need for admiration
  • Lack empathy
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24
Q

How are people with anti social personality usually described?

A

Psycho or sociopaths

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25
Q

Describe 4 types of behaviors that are associated with antisocial personality disorder?

A
  • A history of illegal or socially disapproved activity beginning before age 15 and continuing into adulthood
  • Failure to show constancy and responsibility in work, sexual relationships, parenthood, or financial obligations
  • Irritability and aggressiveness
  • Reckless and impulsive behavior
  • Disregard for the truth
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26
Q

Describe 4 types of behavior that are associated with borderline personality disorder

A
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • Reckless behavior including driving and unsafe sex
  • Self-injurious or self-mutilation behavior
  • Suicidal actions and threats
  • Chronic feelings of emptiness
  • Anger control problems
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27
Q

Why do people with borderline personality most commonly form intense conflict-ridden relationships?

A

Struggle with recurrent fears of abandonment

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28
Q

When is the peak of suicide in people with borderline personality disorder?

A

Peak of suicide is young adulthood

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29
Q

What are the three clusters of disorder symptoms?

A
  • Identity disturbance (self-damaging behavior)
  • Unstable relationships and emotion (anger)
  • Self-destructive and impulsive behavior
30
Q

What do emotions look like with people who have borderline personality disorder?

A
  • Feelings towards others can change drastically and inexplicably –> very quickly
  • Emotions are intense, erratic and can change from passionate idealization to contemptuous anger especially towards different people
31
Q

How do theorists explain borderline personality disorder?

A

Elements of the disorder are linked to biological abnormalities

32
Q

Describe the neural components associated with borderline personality disorder

A
  • Overly reactive amygdala (limbic system) and under active prefrontal cortex
  • Lower serotonin activity making them more likely to be depressed
33
Q

How many times are relatives of those with borderline personality disorder more likely to get the disorder?

A

5 times

34
Q

What is the stigma around mental health services and people with personality disorders?

A

Therapists do not want to work with people who have borderline personality disorder because it is scary and they don’t want people to hurt themselves

35
Q

What are 6 self-destructive acts by hospitalized patients with borderline personality disorder? (define them)

A
  1. Suicide threats/attempts
    - - get attention
    - - to cause trouble
    - - done in a rage
  2. Overdose
    - - no usual pattern
    - - barbiturates most frequently (self induced sleeping through pills)
  3. Self-mutilation
    - - wrist slashing, body banging, burning, hair removal
  4. Drug abuse
    - - polydrug abuse, amphetamines, alcohol
  5. Promiscuity or alcohol
    - - usually under the influence of alcohol
  6. Accidents
    - - reckless driving
36
Q

How heritable is borderline personality disorder? What does this play a role in? (give percentage)

A

60% and may play a role in impulsivity and emotional dysregulation

37
Q

Describe Linehan’s Diathesis-Stress Theory of borderline personality disorder

A

This is a cyclical motion
Emotional dysregulation in the child –> Great demands on the family –> Invalidation by parents through punishing or ignoring the demands –> emotional outbursts by child to which parents attend

38
Q

What is the main pervasive pattern of those with narcissistic personality disorder?

A

They are grandiose, need much admiration, and feel no empathy for others

39
Q

Describe 4 signs of those with narcissistic personality disorder

A
  • Grandiose view of self (preoccupied with fantasies of success)
  • Self-centered (demands constant attention, lack of empathy, feelings of arrogance, envy, entitlement)
  • Sensitive to criticism (enraged when not admired)
  • Seeks out high-status partners
  • Most frequently comorbid with borderline personality disorder
40
Q

What percent of adults display narcissistic personality disorder?

A

1%

41
Q

What percent of men have narcissistic personality disorder?

A

75%

42
Q

When is narcissistic personality disorder usually common to be diagnosed and when does it disappear?

A

Common among teenagers and usually disappears when adulthood is reached

43
Q

What social environmental disorders are reflective of borderline personality disorder?

A
  • Parental separation, verbal and emotional abuse during childhood
  • Represents Linehan’s Diathesis-Stress Theory
44
Q

What are treatments for borderline personality disorder?

A
  • Psychotherapy
  • Medication
  • Hospitalization
45
Q

What is a common challenge therapists face when helping people with borderline personality disorder?

A

Balance between empathizing with a patient’s dependency and anger and challenging their way of thinking

46
Q

What are some medications people with borderline personality disorder use?

A

Antidepressant, antibipolar, anti anxiety, and antipsychotic drugs

47
Q

What makes giving a person with borderline personality disorder medication so controversial?

A

Given the numerous suicide attempts and substance abuse these patients have it can be risky – sometimes a combined method of drug therapy and psychotherapy work best

48
Q

What therapies are used for people with borderline personality disorder?

A
  • Individual therapy
  • Psychodynamic
  • Cognitive approach
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
    Group therapy
49
Q

What is the problem with hospitalizing people with borderline personality disorder to a certain extent?

A
  • Some want to be hospitalized because it feels safer and there is more structure
  • Not a realistic environment and you have to go out into the real world
50
Q

What are the 4 components of the model for dialectal behavior therapy?

A

Goal is to reduce self-harm behaviors:

  1. Core mindfulness (cognitive dysregulation)
  2. Distress (impulsiveness)
  3. Emotional regulation
  4. Interpersonal effectiveness (interpersonal chaos)
51
Q

What has therapy for people with borderline personality disorder look like?

A
  • Fewer number of self-harm episodes
  • Less severe self-mutilation
  • Fewer number of suicide attempts
  • Decreased hospital admissions
  • Decrease in severity in symptoms
  • Less absence from work
52
Q

What is the main pervasive pattern of people with histrionic personality disorder?

A

Extremely emotional and continually seek to be the center of attention

53
Q

Describe 4 of the signs of excessive emotionality and attention seeking shown in many contexts by early adulthood with histrionic personality disorder

A
  • Strong need to be the center of attention
  • Inappropriate sexually seductive behavior
  • Rapidly shifting expression of emotions
  • Use of physical appearance to draw attention to self
  • Speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
  • Exaggerated, theatrical emotional expression
  • Overly suggestible
  • Misreads relationships as more intimate than they are
54
Q

What are the masculine and feminine versions of personality disorders?

A

Narcissistic personality disorder –> masculine –> want to be admired and would never show vulnerability
Histrionic personality disorder –> feminine –> want to be the victim

55
Q

What cluster do anxious and fearful personality disorders fall into?

A

Cluster C

56
Q

What personality disorders are in Cluster C?

A

Avoidant, dependent, and obsessive compulsive (uptight, workaholic)

57
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of avoidant?

A

Social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, hypersensitivity to negative evaluation

58
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of dependent personality disorder?

A

Excessive need to be taken care of, submissive and clinging behaviors, fears of separation

59
Q

Is there a sex difference for people with dependent personality disorder?

A

No

60
Q

What is the pervasive pattern with those who have obsessive compulsive personality disorder?

A
  • Not accompanied by obsessions or compulsions
  • Preoccupation with orderliness and perfectionism
  • Openness and efficiency
  • Restricted flexibility
61
Q

What is avoidant personality disorder comorbid with?

A

Social anxiety disorder and major depression

62
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of those who have avoidant personality disorder?

A

Similar to social phobia and many people with one disorder experience the other

63
Q

Describe 4 of behaviors those with avoidant personality disorder

A
  • Fears criticism, rejection, or disapproval
  • Avoids interpersonal situations
  • Restrained and inhibited in interpersonal situations
  • Avoids taking risks to avoid embarrassment
64
Q

What is the difference between social anxiety disorder and avoidant personality disorder?

A
  • Social anxiety disorder (fear the context) and avoidant (fear the interpersonal context)
65
Q

Are there an equal numbers of males and females diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder?

A

Yes

66
Q

Why shouldn’t avoidant personality disorder be in Cluster C?

A

It could be in Cluster A

  • A longitudinal study identified people with social anhedonia and people that scored beyond 2 standard deviations on the test were higher risk for developing schizotypal disorder as well as personality disorder and also met criteria for avoidant personality disorder but not other kinds of personality disorders
  • Study of first degree relatives of people with childhood schizophrenia they had a disproportionate amount of Cluster A
67
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of people with dependent personality disorder?

A

They have an excessive need to be taken care of

68
Q

Describe 4 of behaviors those with dependent personality disorder

A
  • Difficulty making decisions without excessive advice and reassurance from others
  • Need for others to take responsibility for most major areas of life
  • Difficulty disagreeing with others for fear of losing their support
  • Difficulty doing unpleasant things as a way to obtain the approval and support of others
  • Feelings of helplessness when alone because of lack of confidence in ability to handle things without others
  • Urgently seeking new relationship when one ends
  • Preoccupation with fears of having to take care of self
69
Q

What fear looms over those who have dependent and borderline personality disorder?

A

Fear of abandonment

70
Q

What is the pervasive pattern of those with obsessive-compulsive disorder?

A

Preoccupied with order, perfection, and control that they lose all flexibility, openness, and efficiency

71
Q

Describe 4 of behaviors those with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

A
  • Perfectionism
  • Preoccupied with rules, details, schedules, and organization
  • Overly focused on work
  • Reluctant to make decisions
  • Control freaks
  • Most frequently comorbid with avoidant personality disorder
72
Q

Test questions

A

Schizoid (odd and detached) and schizotypal (psychotic like symptoms → closer to schizophrenia) and paranoid (think someone is out to get you)
(All in Group A)