Personality Disorders

Question 1

Learning objectives

Answer 1

1. To understand the inherent limitations of trying to identify different personality disorders
2. To understand the DSM-5 diagnoses and clusters
3. To understand the high prevalence and comorbidity of personality disorders
4. To understand the putative aetiological factors that might underpin personality disorders

Question 2

1. To understand the inherent limitations of trying to identify different personality disorders

What is personality?
Trait vs state

Answer 2

Conceptual Issues
Personality is our tendency towards patterns of behaviour, emotion, cognition, and interaction that show through regardless of the situation we are in. Personality describes how you cope with adapt to and respond to a range of life events, including; challenges, opportunities, successes and failures
– i.e., trait rather than state

For example
• Anxious before an exam – STATE
• Anxious all the time – TRAIT
• Wanting to do an important job well – STATE
• Wanting to do everything perfectly – TRAIT

Question 3

1. To understand the inherent limitations of trying to identify different personality disorders

Conceptual issues in defining personality

Different factors contributing to conceptual issues

Answer 3

> Context
Personality traits and disorders must be viewed in terms of their context - if someone is anxious, that’s usually fine, but you don’t want an anxious surgeon.

> Sociopolitical perspectives

• “weird” - cannot all agree e.g. Russel brand
• “acceptable” - again can’t agree e.g. Trump
• “within social norms” - e.g. antisocial (Russian Gulags would deport people who didn’t agree, labelled them as mentally ill, Dostoyevski)

> Diagnosing boundaries

• we shouldn’t section people because they might become dangerous
• borderline psychotic = modern borderline pd

> Microlegal perspective
- sectioning someone/ detaining them

Question 4

1. To understand the inherent limitations of trying to identify different personality disorders

Conceptual issues in defining personality

Categories vs dimensions

Answer 4

Issues with viewing personalities as a distinct group outside of psychological norms, because usually the symptoms of personality disorders are just more severe forms of personality traits e.g. paranoia

How do you then establish the cut off? stats are arbitrary, people in the next percentile are often not markedly different in presentation, what about the bottom group?

Question 5

Defining personality disorders

Answer 5

Stable personalities develop a form of dealing with life events that are fixed and unchanging. Despite the fact that this may have maladaptive consequences.
This can introduce disruption and hardship, cause them emotional distress to themselves and those they interact with. Such traits are typical in people diagnosed with personality disorders.

The DSM five defines a personality disorder as:
“an enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individuals’ culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence, or early adulthood, is stable over time and leads to distress and impairment”
They are often associated with unusual ways of interpreting events, unpredictable mood swings, or impulsive behaviour.