Personality Disorders

Question 1

Antisocial personality disorder

Answer 1

• Failure to conform to social norms with lawful behaviors performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
• More common in men;
• Deception - repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
• Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
• Irritability and aggressiveness - repeated physical fights or assaults;
• Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
• Consistent irresponsibility, failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
• Lack of remorse, indifference to having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another

Question 2

Avoidant personality disorder

Answer 2

• Avoidance of activities which involve interpersonal contact due to fears of criticism, or rejection.
• Unwillingness to be involved unless certain of being liked
• Restraint in intimate relationships due to the fear of being ridiculed
• Views self as inept and inferior to others
• Social isolation accompanied by a craving for social contact

Question 3

Borderline personality disorder

Answer 3

• Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
• Unstable interpersonal relationships which alternate between idealization and devaluation
• Unstable self image
• Impulsivity in potentially self damaging area (e.g. Spending, sex, substance abuse)
• Recurrent suicidal behaviour
• Affective instability
• Chronic feelings of emptiness
• Difficulty controlling temper
• Quasi psychotic thoughts

Question 4

Dependent personality disorder

Answer 4

• Difficulty making everyday decisions without excessive reassurance from others - need for others to assume responsibility for major areas of their life
• Difficulty in expressing disagreement with others due to fears of losing support
• Unrealistic fears of being left to care for themselves
• Urgent search for another relationship as a source of care and support when a close relationship ends

Question 5

Histrionic personality disorder

Answer 5

• Inappropriate sexual seductiveness
• Need to be the centre of attention
• Rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
• Physical appearance used for attention seeking
• Impressionistic speech lacking detail
• Self dramatization
• Relationships considered to be more intimate than they are

Question 6

Narcissistic personality disorder

Answer 6

• Grandiose sense of self importance
• Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, or beauty
• Sense of entitlement
• Taking advantage of others to achieve own needs
• Lack of empathy
• Chronic envy

Question 7

Obsessive compulsive personality disorder

Answer 7

• occupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, to the point that the key part of the activity is gone
• perfectionism that impedes completing tasks
• Is meticulous, scrupulous, and rigid about etiquettes of morality, ethics, or values
• Is not capable of disposing worn out or insignificant things even when they have no sentimental meaning
• bad team worker, only wants things done their way
• have no insight, unlike in OCD

Question 8

Paranoid personality disorder

Answer 8

• Hypersensitivity and an unforgiving attitude when insulted
• tendency to questions the loyalty of friends
• Reluctance to confide in others
• Preoccupation with conspirational beliefs
• tendency to perceive attacks on their character

Question 9

Schizoid personality disorder

Answer 9

• Indifference to praise and criticism
• Preference for solitary activities
• Lack of interest in sexual interactions
• Lack of desire for companionship
• Emotional coldness
• Few interests
• Few friends or confidants other than family

Question 10

Schizotypal personality disorder

Answer 10

• Ideas of reference (differ from delusions in that some insight is retained)
• Odd beliefs and magical thinking
• Unusual perceptual disturbances
• Paranoid ideation and suspiciousness
• Lack of close friends other than family members
• Inappropriate affect
• Odd speech without being incoherent

Schizotypal = remember “schizophrenia-like”