Personality Disorders Flashcards
What is the Definition of Personality Disorders?
- Personality disorders are “enduring patterns of
perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the
environment and oneself” that “are exhibited in a
wide range of important social and personal
contexts,” and “are inflexible and maladaptive,
and cause either significant functional
impairment or subjective distress”
What are the Main Features of PDs?
- Extreme patterns of thinking, feeling, and
behaving that deviate from a person’s culture - Begin early in life and remain stable
- not contextual or transient
- Inflexible and maladaptive
- Cause significant functional impairment and
subjective distress
What are the DSM Personality Disorders?
- Paranoid Personality Disorder
- Schizoid Personality Disorder
- Schizotypal Personality Disorder
- Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder
- Histrionic Personality Disorder
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- Avoidant Personality Disorder
- Dependent Personality Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
What is Cluster A: Odd or Eccentric?
- Paranoid PD – is a pattern of distrust and
suspiciousness where others’ motives are
interpreted as malevolent and wishing harm - Schizoid PD – these individuals are detached
from social relationships and show an extremely
restricted range of emotional expression - Schizotypal PD – there is acute discomfort in
close relationships, cognitive or perceptual
distortions, and eccentricities of behaviour
What is Paranoid Personality Disorder?
- suspicious of other’s motives
- interprets actions of others as deliberately
demeaning/threatening - expectation of being exploited
- see hidden messages in benign comments
- easily insulted/ bears grudges
- Feels people are “out to get me”
What is Schizoid Personality Disorder?
- indifferent to social relationships
- Very limited social contacts
- aloof, detached, loners
- no apparent need of friends, sex
- Engage in solitary activities
- Typically work in solitary jobs
What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder?
- peculiar patterns of thinking and behaviour
- perceptual and cognitive disturbances
- magical thinking
- not psychotic
- Likely related to schizophrenia
What is Cluster B: Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic?
- Antisocial PD – disregard for, and violation of, the
rights of others. Lack of empathy - Histrionic PD – is a pattern of excessive
emotionality and attention seeking - Narcissistic PD – a pattern of grandiosity, need
for admiration, and focus on self - Borderline PD – exhibit instability in interpersonal
relationships, self-image, and affect, impulsivity
and self harm
What is Antisocial Personality Disorder?
- pattern of irresponsibility, recklessness, impulsivity beginning in childhood or adolescence (e.g., lying, truancy)
adulthood: - criminal behaviour
- little adherence to societal norms,
- little anxiety
- conflicts with others
- callous/exploitive
What is Psychopathy?
- Egocentric, deceitful, shallow, impulsive
individuals who use and manipulate others - Callous, lack of empathy
- Little remorse
- Thrill-seeking
- “human predators” (Hare, 1993)
- No “conscience”
What is in the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised?
- Glib and superficial
- Egocentric and grandiose
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Lack of empathy
- Deceitful and manipulative
- Shallow emotions
- Impulsive
- Poor behavior controls
- Need for excitement
- Lack of responsibility
- Early behavior problems
- Adult antisocial behavior
What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?
- excessive emotional displays/ dramatic behaviour
- attention-seeking, victim stance
- seek re-assurance, praise
- shallow emotions, flamboyant, self-centered
- very seductive
What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
- grandiose, sense of self-importance
- lack of empathy
- hyper-sensitive to criticism
- exaggerate accomplishments/ abilities
- Belief they are special and unique
- Sense of entitlement
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
- marked instability of mood, relationships, self-
image - intense, unstable relationships
- uncertainty about sexuality
- everything is “good” or “bad” (self-image or
others) - chronic feeling of “emptiness”
- recurrent threats of self-harm/ self-mutilation
(often happens, create physical pain to take away
from emotional pain) - have abandonment issues assumed to be due to
extremely unstable upbringings
What are the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (Poorly regulated emotions)?
- Mood swings and unstable emotions
- Anxiety
- Inappropriately intense anger
- Difficulty controlling anger
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
What are the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (Impulsivity)?
- Reckless behavior
- Suicidal behavior and self harm
- Munchausen’s Syndrome (harm myself for attention) and by Proxy (hurts child to gets attention)
- Suicide
What are the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (Impaired perception or reasoning)?
- Paranoid thinking
- Dissociative episodes
- Depersonalization
- Unstable self image or sense of self
What are the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (Markedly disturbed relationships)?
- Intense and unstable interpersonal relationships
- Black and white thinking
- Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
What does Borderline Personality Disorder can look like?
Schizophrenia
- hallucinations, illusions, paranoia
Bipolar Affective Disorder
- mood lability and anger
Major Depressive Disorder
- suicidal, depressed
Antisocial Personality Disorder
- legal problems
What is the epidemology of Borderline Personality Disorder?
- 2 % of the general population
- Females 4 times the rate of males
- 11 % of psychiatry outpatients
- 25 % of acute psychiatry inpatients
- 50 % of long term psychiatry inpatients
- 60 % with co-existing Major Depressive Disorder
- 7% complete suicide. ( 7 X General population)
What is the comorbidity of Borderline Personality Disorder?
- 24%-74% also diagnosed with major depression
- 4% to 20% bipolar
- 25% of bulimics also diagnosed with BPD
- 67% also diagnosed with substance use disorder
What is Emotion Regulation?
“process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, the intensity of them, and how they experience and express these emotions.”
What is emotion dysregulation?
Vulnerability to negative emotion
- High sensitivity, reactivity, and slow return to
baseline
- Influences emotional arousal
Poor coping skills
- Inability to: manage social interactions,
awareness of relevant stimuli, identify and label
emotional experiences, manage arousal
Maladaptive responses to others expressions of emotion
- Others emotions often trigger emotional arousal
What are the components of Cluster C: Anxious or Fearful?
Avoidant PD
– social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and
hypersensitivity to negative evaluation
Dependent PD
– submissive and clinging behavior, an excessive
need to be taken care of
Obsessive-Compulsive PD
– a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism,
and control
