Personality Disorders

Question 1

What is a personality disorder?

Answer 1

A personality disorder is a maladaptive pattern of behaviour that is pervasive and has an onset in adolescence.

Question 2

What is the co-morbidity within personality disorder clusters A,B and C?

Answer 2

9.1%

Question 3

How does personality disorder differ from traits?

Answer 3

Personality disorder is:
Inflexible
Maladaptive
Persisting
Significant impairment or distress

Question 4

What are the personality disorders that come under Cluster A(odd, eccentric)?

Answer 4

Paranoid
Schizoid
Schizotypal

Question 5

What are the personality disorders that come under Cluster B( dramatic, emotional)?

Answer 5

Antisocial Personality Disorder
Borderline
Histrionic
Narcissistic

Question 6

What are the personality disorders that come under Cluster C(fearful, anxious)?

Answer 6

Avoidant
Dependent
OCPD

Question 7

Describe Paranoid Personality Disorder.

Answer 7

Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others, across contexts
suspects others are plotting
reluctant to confide in others
Lacks forgiveness
Doesn’t occur exclusively during a psychotic episode or due to medication

Question 8

Describe Schizoid Personality Disorder.

Answer 8

Pervasive detachment from social relationships
Doesn’t seek close relationships
Emotional coldness and detached
Chooses solitary activities

Question 9

Describe Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

Answer 9

Taxonic
Cognitive and perceptual distortions 
Eccentric behaviour
Odd beliefs outside the norms
Inappropriate affect
Paranoid
Social anxiety that doesnt distinguish with familiarity

Question 10

Describe Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Answer 10

Disregard of rights of others since 15 yrs
Lack of conformity to social norms
Lying for profit 
Impulsive
Reckless disregard for others' safety
Only need 3 to be diagnosed

Question 11

Describe Borderline Personality Disorder.

Answer 11

Pervasive instability of interpersonal relationships 
Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment 
Identity disturbance 
Impulsivity in 2 or more areas
Recurrent suicidal gestures
Chronic feelings of emptiness

Question 12

Describe Histrionic Personality Disorder.

Answer 12

Pervasive excessive emotionality and attention seeking
Uncomfortable if not centre of attention
Shallow emotional expression
Suggestable
Interactions often inappropriately sexual or provocative

Question 13

Describe Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Answer 13

Pervasive grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy
Believe they are so special that people can’t understand them
Sense of entitlement
Arrogant
Envious of others/ believes others envy them

Question 14

Describe Avoidant Personality Disorder.

Answer 14

Pervasive social inhibition 
Avoids jobs with interpersonal contact
Fear of being ridiculed
Views themselves an inferior
Reluctant to take risks or try something new in case of embarrassment

Question 15

Describe Dependent Personality Disorder.

Answer 15

Pervasive need to be taken care of.
Submissive and clingy
Constantly needing reassurance from others
Difficulty expressing disagreement because fear of loss
Urgently seeks another relationship when one ends

Question 16

Describe Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.

Answer 16

Pervasive preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism at expense of flexibility
Preoccupied with details
Perfectionism interferes with completion
Excessively devoted to work to the exclusion of friendships
Associated with hoarding
Rigidity and stubborness

Question 17

Costa and McCrae, 1992 found strong correlations between…

Answer 17

Neuroticism and Paranoia and Borderline PD.

Agreeableness and Paranoia, Borderline and Antisocial PD.

Question 18

Samuel and Widiger did a metanalysis of the relationships between the FFM and personality disorders and found that…

Answer 18

C, E, A, and N correlated as expected

O didnt have any significant correlations

Question 19

MaClaren & Best (2010) studied Non Suicidal Self Injury and BPD with the FFM. What did they find?

Answer 19

NSSI is a diagnostic element of BPD and so studied ppts who self harmed.
High and low NSSI group higher N and lower A.

Question 20

Why do links between Personality Disorder and FFM have major problems for the General Factor of Personality?

Answer 20

GFP- “normal” personality-Low N, high in E, A and C. This is also the profile of Histrionic PD.

Question 21

What are the clinical implications of the RST?

Answer 21

Caseras et al (2001)- High BIS(sensitivity to punishment) predicted levels of Cluster C & distinguished between C and other clusters.
Soler et al (2015)- sensitivity to punishment and reward scores higher in BPD than Major Depressive Disorder and Healthy controls groups.

Question 22

Describe the hybrid approach to the diagnosis of PDs

Answer 22

Hybrid model diagnoses people with Personality disorder- trait specified when their symptoms or trait patterns are substantially different from any of the 6 specific personality disorders. It deals with co-morbidity like this. Dimensional approach - impaired personality functioning, personality trait pathology.