Personality Disorders Flashcards
Mental (psychological) disorder - psychopathology
Abnormal/Normal boundary?
Abnormal Behaviour (Rosenhan and Seligman (1989)
• persistent emotional pain (distress)
• disturbing others (observer discomfort)
• fail to perform day to day activities (maladaptiveness)
• irrational
• lack of self control (unpredictability)
Psychodiagnosis
DSM 5 Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2013). 300 disorders classified and described along 5 dimensions/axes:-
Axis I:- clinical syndromes
Axis II:- personality disorders
Axis III:- potentially contributory medical conditions
Axis IV:- psychosocial and environmental problems
Axis V:- rating of current level of psychological, social and occupational functioning
Also International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organisation.
Potential Problems of Psychodiagnosis from:-
personal judgements of abnormality reflect social, cultural and political values, and may change over time. Need to distinguish between ‘universal’ (across societies) and ‘specific’ (within a particular society) mental disorders.
- reliability and validity difficult to achieve. Clinician’s assumptions/theoretical stance/misconceptions, e.g. a personality disorder rather than the effect of a particular stressor, ‘reading in syndrome’, failure to consider further information after diagnosis.
- labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy/negative self-image, and stereotyping by observers, e.g. Rosenhan (1973) and pseudopatients. In the minds of the observers, e.g. Szasz (1963) - and Laing (1960) and social and cultural expectations.
Developmental Disorders
mental retardation (mild, moderate, severe, profound)
• specific learning disorders, e.g.developmental arithmetic disorder
• pervasive developmental disorders, e.g. autism
Disruptive Behaviour Disorders
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• conduct disorders, e.g. solitary aggressive behaviour, theft, promiscuity, vandalism
• (oppositional) defiant behaviour
Anxiety Disorders
Distress caused by feelings of vulnerability, apprehension, fear.
• Panic Disorder
Most common - 3.8% of population during their lives. Overwhelming fear without reason: if reason known, often felt insufficient for fear. Unpredictable panic attacks. Links with agoraphobia?
• Phobic Disorders
Irrational fear of some object or situation. Specific, social and agoraphobia.
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder
Worry constantly (‘free floating anxiety’)
• Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsession = unwanted thoughts or images
Compulsion = repetitive behaviour
Somatoform Disorders
Physical symptoms with no obvious organic cause.
• Hypochondriasis
Substitute for emotional pain?
• Conversion Disorder
Sudden blindness, paralysis, etc. Hysteria. Miracle cures. Reduce anxiety via getout.
Dissociative Disorders
Part of self split off
• psychogenic amnesia
partial or total forgetting of past event. Blackout. Traumatic event.
• psychogenic fugue (flight/to flee)
walk away from it all.
• multiple-personality (identity) disorder
up to 10 in clusters of shy, etc., aggressive, etc. and level-headed, etc. Person not aware of other ones. ‘Three Faces of Eve’.
Depressive Disorders (Mood)
major depression (unipolar) - months • dysthymia - chronic but milder - two years
Bipolar Disorders (Mood)
manic depression
• cyclothymia - chronic but milder hypomania with depression
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
SAD
Schizophrenia
‘schizein’ ‘phren’ = split mind
disturbances in content (delusions, neologisms) and form (poor associations) of thought
perceptual disturbance - hallucinations, voices
emotional disturbance - laugh (or extreme anger, etc.) at wrong time, flat effect, no sense of self, inner world
motor behaviour - head banging, catatonic stupor
Personality Disorders (Axis II of DSM)
May or may not receive an Axis I diagnosis. Maladaptive relating to others rather than to oneself.
4.4% of the general population (5.4% men: 3.4% women)
72.9% of the prison population ((64.5% Antisocial PD: 21.7% Paranoid)
Comormidity
All high N on Big 5
Related to Anxiety
dependent
- obsessive-compulsive - perfectionism at the expense of others
- passive aggressive - e.g. intentional inefficiency
- avoidant - e.g. oversensitive to rejection
Related to Mood
histrionic - e.g. overdramatic. High E on Big 5.
- narcissistic - e.g. self-importance, devalues or idolises others. High E on Big 5.
- borderline - e.g. unstable in mood
• antisocial (psychopath/sociopath):- ¥ failure to conform ¥ deceitful ¥ impulsiveness ¥ aggressiveness/irritability ¥ recklessness ¥ irresponsibility ¥ lack of remorse ¥ Low C and A ( Big 5)
