Personality Disorders Flashcards
What is a personality disorder?
A disturbance characterised by problems in functioning of aspects of the self and/or interpersonal dysfunction
Persisted over an extended period of time - lasts 2 years or more
What is the patterns of disturbance in personality disorder?
Cognition, emotional experience, emotional expression and behaviour which is maladaptive (poorly regulated)
May be evoked by particular types of circumstances and not others
What is the disturbance in personality disorder associated with?
Substantial distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational and other areas of functioning
What are the general diagnostic requirements for personality disorder?
Severe disturbances in functioning of the self
Problems in interpersonal functioning seriously affect all relationships and ability to perform in expected social and occupational roles
What are severe personality disorders associated with?
Harm to self or others, and serious impairment in all or nearly all areas of life
What are some key features of personality disorders?
Negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, anankastia and borderline pattern
Describe negative affectivity seen in personality disorder
Low self esteem + self confidence
Tendency to the strong experience of negative emotions
Describe detachment seen in personality disorders
Tendency towards social and emotional detachment from others in a rigid way
What is dissociality in personality disorder?
Clinical phenomenon related to harmful behaviour towards others and often lack of empathy related to it
Describe disinhibition seen in personality disorder
Tendency towards impulsiveness and recklessness
Describe anakastia in personality disorder
Tendency towards rigid insistence on order, cleanliness, abiding by rules to their letter
What are cluster A disorder characterised by?
Severe problems of basic interpersonal trust
What is included in cluster A disorders?
Paranoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Schizo-typical personality disorder
What is paranoid personality disorder?
Related to a severe tendency to see malign motives in others
What is schizoid personality disorder?
Related to gross social and emotional detachment
What is schizotypical personality disorder?
Related to use of vivid fantasy life and the development of a highly odd manner likely as a hangover from significant disturbance in early relationships
What are cluster B personality disorders characterised by?
By problems of impulse control and emotional regulation
What disorders are included in cluster B disorders?
Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic and antisocial
Describe borderline personality disorder
Involves the loss of an ability to manage emotions in situations where one felt one would be abandoned by important person
Associated with suicidal behaviour to manage emotions and gross instability of ones emotions
Describe Histrionic personality disorder
Related to the dramatic yet shallow show of emotions, as well as the use of interpersonal seductiveness, to manage a disturbance of identity
Describe narcissistic personality disorder
Related to someone being extremely self-important and selfish in their interactions as a way of covering over extremely deficient self-esteem
Describe antisocial personality disorder
Involves repeated violent or criminal behaviour with most likely some impairment of ordinary remorsefulness
What are cluster C personality disorders characterised by?
By the abnormal management of anxiety
What are included in cluster C disorders?
Obsessive compulsive, avoidant and dependant
Describe obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Problem of over-rigidity and reliance on management of one’s environment and order in relationships and routine to prevent overwhelming anxiety
Describe avoidant personality disorder
Involved an ingrained tendency to manage anxiety simply by gross avoidance of anxiety-provoking situations , usually leading to a piling up of problems
Describe dependant personality disorder
Involves avoiding anxiety by delegating any major responsibility for oneself or one’s decisions to someone else or to others in general
When is borderline pattern applied to individuals?
When personality disturbance is characterised by a pervasive pattern of instability on interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects with marked impulsivity
What are the criteria options for borderline pattern?
Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, pattern of unstable + intense interpersonal relationships, identity disturbance, act rashly in states of high negative emotion, recurrent self-harm, marked reactivity of mood, feelings of emptiness, inappropriate intense anger and psychotic like features
Describe self-centeredness in dissociality
Sense of entitlement, believing and acting as if they deserve
Active - expectation of one’s admiration, attention seeking and negative behaviour
Describe lack of empathy in dissociality
Indifference to whether one’s actions inconvenience others or hurt them in way
Often deceptive and manipulative - mean and physical aggression
Only concerned about them and instead are likely to use this understanding to exploit other
