Personality Disorders - Chapter 13 Content

Question 1

Define personality disorders.

Answer 1

An enduring maladaptive pattern for relating to the environment and oneself exhibited in a wide range of context that cause significant functional impairment or subjective distress

Question 2

What are the 5 components of the Big Five Factor Model?

Answer 2

1. extraversion
2. agreeableness
3. conscientiousness
4. neuroticism
5. openness to experiences

Question 3

What is a major concern with personality disorders?

Answer 3

Comorbidity, where they are diagnosed with more than one disorder all at the same time.

Question 4

What are the 3 clusters of personality disorders?

Answer 4

Cluster A: odd or eccentric (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal)

Cluster B: dramatic, emotional, or erratic (histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, borderline)

CLuster C: fearful or anxious (avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive)

Question 5

What is the general criteria for personality disorders?

Answer 5

A. enduring apttern of inner experince and behaviour that deviates from cultural expectation (Cogntive, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, impulse control)

B. pattern is inflexible and pervasive across broad range of situations

C. clinically significant

D. pattern is stable and long duration, onset is childhood or adolescents

E. not accounted for by another disorder

Question 6

What are common features of personality disorders?

Answer 6

• little insight (awareness)
• ego-syntonic (thinks their actions are normally for themself)
• interpersonal problems
• initially difficult to diagnose
• intractable, difficult to treat

Question 7

Define paranoid.

Answer 7

Criteria: unjustified distrust and suspicion of other
Cause: genes, early mistreatment and belief, cultural experiences
Treatment: rarely seek on their own, focusing on trust with therapy

Question 8

Define schizoid.

Answer 8

Criteria: social detachment and low desire for social/sexual relationships, constricted emotions
Cause: unclear
Treatment: focus on interpersonal relationships, social skills

Question 9

Define Schizotypal.

Answer 9

Criteria: acute discomfort with and reduced capacity for close relationships, cognitive or perceptual distortion and eccentricities, magical thinking
Cause: possibly related to schizophrenia, neurobiology with deficits in memory
Treatment: focusing on comorbid depression, medical treatment similar to schizophrenia

Question 10

Defien Borderline.

Answer 10

Criteria: identity instability, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal issues, impulsive behaviours, all-or-nothing thinking, avoiding abandonment, suicidal behaviours
Cause: run in families, serotonin is less responsive, less activity in the prefrontal cortex, social neglect, abuse, emotional reactivity, attachment needs
treatment: medications (target mood), crisis intervention, psychotherapy (CBT, DBT, schema therapy, family therapy)

Question 11

What does Dialectical behavioural therapy focus on?

Answer 11

• skill based
• distress tolerance
• emotion regulation
• interpersonal skilss
• mindfulness

Question 12

Define histrionic.

Answer 12

Criteria: the strong need for centre of attention, provocative in appearance and behaviour, dramatic, exaggerated speech and expression of emotions
Cause: unknown
Treatment: medication for mood, psychotherapy to address attention-seeking, problematic behaviours and long term consequences

Question 13

Define narcissistic.

Answer 13

Criteria: grandiose view of own uniqueness and abilities, crave constant attention, excessive admiration, lack empathy
Cause: developmental, social factors
Treatment: focus on psychotherapy with lack of empathy, comorbid with depression, shame and self worth

Question 14

Define antisocial.

Answer 14

Criteria: disregard for others, violation of another right, lack of remorse, impulsive, explosive, irresponsible (psychopaths)
Cause: genetic environment interaction, under-arousal and fearlessness hypothesis, levels of aggression
treatment: tend not to seek treatment, parent training with recognizing behavioural problems early on

Question 15

Define avoidant.

Answer 15

Criteria: extremely sensitive to opinions of others, avoidant of relations. marked fear of rejection by other
Causes: temperament in early stages, early rejection, behavioural inhibition
Treatment: similar to social anxiety, social skill training

Question 16

Define dependent.

Answer 16

Criteria: pervasive and excessive reliance on others to make major and minor life decisions, unreasonable fear of abandonment, clingy and submissive in relationships, needs to be taken care of
Cause: undefined, sociotropy (personality orientation involving a strong investment in positive social interactions)
Treatment: focus on increasing independence

Question 17

Define obsessive-compulsive.

Answer 17

Criteria: a pervasive, excessive and rigid fixation on doing things the right way, highly perfectionistic, orderly, controlling tendencies
Cause: unknown, preference for structure and order
Treatment: target their need for order, rumination, procrastination

Question 18

Define conduct disorder

Answer 18

This is when a child is showing an ongoing pattern of behaviour with aggression towards others, and severe violations of rules and social norms at home, school and with peers. This can include bullying, physical fights, using weapons, being physically cruel to people or animals, etc. (child, adolescent and unspecific onset)

Question 19

Explain the under-arousal hypothesis associated with antisocial disorder.

Answer 19

These people normally have very low levels of cortical arousal, and they tend to experience negative affect and perform poorly in situations. This is a main character as to why they have their antisocial and risk-taking behaviours to boost their levels of arousal.

Question 20

Explain the fearlesssness hypothesis associated with antisocial disorder.

Answer 20

These people tend to have a higher threshold for experiencing fear. Meaning that things that would easily frighten you, would have little to no effect on a psychopath