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PSYC 305 > Personality Extremes > Flashcards

Personality Extremes Flashcards

1
Q

what constitutes a personality disorder?

A
  • an unusually extreme and problematic degree of one or more attributes of personality
  • an enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the norms and expectations of the individual’s culture
    - also involves impaired social relations
  • is pervasive, inflexible, and is stable over time
  • has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood
  • extreme high or low expression of any/all big five trait can result in a disorder
  • symptoms can be viewed as maladaptive variations of traits, emotions, cognitions, motives, and self-concept
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2
Q

how can we define what is abnormal?

A

can be defined as something different from normal (statistical), or by considering social standards and norms (social), or a person having attitudes and perceptions that don’t line up with reality (psychological)

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3
Q

how are personality disorders ego-syntonic?

A
  • people identify with the behaviours and experiences that result from their disorder
  • see those things as normal and consistent with their ideal image
  • less likely to believe they have a problem
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4
Q

how does culture, age, and gender affect what we consider abnormal?

A
  • some cultures have different ideas of what is considered abnormal
    • need to understand someone’s cultural background before any evaluation of personality disorder
  • can’t diagnose anyone under 18 because their personality is changing and developing
  • there may be underlying sex differences in how people cope which results in different number of diagnoses between men and women
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5
Q

what personality disorders are included in cluster A of the DSM?

A
  • the “eccentric” cluster: people appear odd and eccentric (unusual)
  • paranoid personality disorder
  • schizoid personality disorder
  • schizotypal personality disorder
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6
Q

what is paranoid personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of distrust and suspiciousness
  • others’ motives are interpreted as malicious
  • persistently bears grudges
  • perceives attacks on their character or reputation
  • paranoia is not based on reality but also not completely delusional
  • can be hostile and argumentative
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7
Q

what is schizoid personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of detachment from social relationships
  • restricted range of emotional expression
  • doesn’t desire or enjoy close relationships
  • prefers solitary activities
  • emotional coldness, detachment, flattened emotions
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8
Q

what is schizotypal personality disorder?

A
  • patter of discomfort in close relationships
  • cognitive or perceptual distortions
  • eccentricities of behaviour and appearance
  • excessive social anxiety that doesn’t diminish
  • odd beliefs, finding meaning in unusual things
  • suspicious or paranoid ideation
  • inappropriate or constricted emotion
  • similar to schizophrenia but without psychotic symptoms
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9
Q

what personality disorders are included in cluster B of the DSM?

A
  • the “erratic” cluster: persons with these disorders appear erratic and emotional
  • antisocial personality disorder
  • borderline personality disorder
  • histrionic personality disorder
  • narcissistic personality disorder
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10
Q

what is antisocial personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of disregard for, and violation of the rights of others
  • criminality, impulsivity
  • failure to learn from experience
  • failure to conform to social norms and laws
  • they must be 18, and must be evidence of conduct disorder before age 15
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11
Q

what is conduct disorder

A

the expression of problematic and antisocial behaviour in childhood

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12
Q

what is psychopathy? how does is differ from sociopathy?

A
  • similar to antisocial personality disorder but more severe and emphasizes subjective traits
  • incapacity to feel guilt, superficial charm, and callous social attitudes
  • sociopaths - less organized/more obvious in behaviour, less violent, maintain some emotions
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13
Q

what is the triarchic model of psychopathy?

A

boldness, meanness, and disinhibition

  • boldness and lack of inhibition are related to brain circuits that process rewards
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14
Q

are psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder due to nature or nurture?

A
  • evidence that they have a reduced fear response
  • less coordinated activity between amygdala and prefrontal cortex (functional and structural differences)
  • psychopathic offenders displayed less of the eye-blink effect but said they were equally distressed as non-psychopathic offenders
  • heritability of APD/psychopathy traits in twin studies estimated at 69%
  • or maybe psychopathy is the result of desensitization process - people with APD/psychopathy are more likely to have been abused early in life
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15
Q

what is the risk of confinement for people with antisocial personality disorder and/or psychopathy?

A
  • about 50% of people with APD have arrest records
  • prevalence of APD among prisoners is 50%, up to 70–100% of male prisoners
    • yet only 25–28% of men in prison would be described as psychopaths
  • those with psychopathy are more likely to recidivate (relapse) after their release
  • right now, confinement is the only solution to psychopathy
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16
Q

what is the concept of successful psychopaths?

A
  • can be defined as the absence of negative consequences, presence of positive outcomes/successes, or both
  • intelligence, higher executive functioning, and charisma makes some more successful
  • common for successful psychopaths to participate in white collar crimes
  • of 261 corporate professionals, 21% had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits (we estimate 3-21% are psychopaths)
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17
Q

what is borderline personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects
  • marked impulsivity (changes between neurosis and psychosis)
  • unstable, intense relationships; frantic efforts to avoid abandonment
  • self-damaging impulsivity (spending, sex, substance abuse).
  • recurrent suicidal or self-harming behaviour, sometimes for manipulation
  • stress-related paranoia & dissociative symptoms
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18
Q

how are ambiguous faces interpreted by people with borderline personality disorder?

A
  • rate neutral faces as an emotion, and mild emotions as intense emotions
  • classify intense emotional expressions quickly and accurately
  • less accurately classified facial expression that were neutral or mildly sad
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19
Q

what is histrionic personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking
  • inappropriate, sexually seductive/provocative behaviour
  • self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated emotions
  • uncomfortable when not centre of attention
  • rapidly shifting and shallow emotions; suggestible
20
Q

what is narcissistic personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy
  • fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty.
  • believes they are special, unique; sense of entitlement; arrogance
  • requires excessive admiration; envious of others
  • interpersonally exploitative; lacks empathy.
21
Q

what is alexithymia?

A
  • difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings to other people
  • people have an externally bound cognitive style: tendency to focus on concrete aspects of life and avoid introspection
22
Q

what is the effect of power in externalizing vs. internalizing disorders?

A

externalizing disorders are related to heightened status, dominance, and power
- involve an outward expression, in a way that affects other people
- antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, conduct disorder

internalizing disorders are related to subordination and submissiveness and the desire to avoid subordination
- effects are mainly internal
- anxiety, depression

23
Q

what is hubris syndrome?

A
  • as people gain power, they are more likely to express narcissistic traits
  • could be a personality disorder that isn’t consistent along lifespan, but is determined by the circumstance
24
Q

what personality disorders are included in cluster C of the DSM?

A
  • the “anxious” cluster: persons appear anxious, fearful, and apprehensive
  • avoidant personality disorder
  • dependent personality disorder
  • obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
25
Q

what is the neurotic paradox?

A

although a behaviour pattern successfully solves one problem for the person, such as reducing or avoiding the source of anxiety, it may create or maintain another equally severe problem

  • illustrated by personality disorders in cluster C
26
Q

what is avoidant personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation
  • avoids activities over fears of criticism, rejection, embarrassment
  • inhibited in new relationships (fear of inadequacy)
27
Q

what is dependent personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of submissive and clinging behaviour related to an excessive need to be taken care of
  • difficulty making decisions on one’s own; uncomfortable when alone
  • urgently seeks another relationship when one ends
  • preoccupied with fears of being left to care for oneself
28
Q

what is obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?

A
  • a pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control
  • rigidity, stubbornness, perfectionism that interferes with task completion
  • excessively devoted to work and productivity
  • overly conscientious and inflexible in moral and ethical matters
29
Q

how prevalent are personality disorders?

A
  • 9-13% of the population meet the criteria for a personality disorder
  • obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is the most prevalent, then narcissistic personality disorder (on self-report measures, narcissism is much less prevalent)
  • largest sex difference in personality disorder is more men have antisocial personality disorder
30
Q

what do we think causes personality disorders?

A
  • abnormal psychology and psychopathology are highly descriptive disciplines
  • the DSM does not take formal stances regarding the origin of disorders
  • most research emphasizes either biological or social causes of personality disorders.
    • heritability of PDs ranges from 24% to 77%
    • childhood abuse, trauma, and neglect are common; in up to 72% of people with BPD
31
Q

how do we treat personality disorders?

A
  • treatment depends on diagnosis, severity of symptoms, and presence of other conditions
  • some combinations of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions is common
  1. therapy - to gain awareness of/manage symptom (cognitive-behavioural therapy, emotion-regulation therapy, schema therapy)
  2. medications to control more difficult symptoms (mood stabilizers, antidepressants, anti-psychotics, anxiolytics)
32
Q

how successful are treatments of personality disorders?

A
  • all PDs become less exaggerated in their expression as we age
    • we get better at emotional regulation and managing disorders with time
  • certain PDs (BPD - 89% of people) respond well to treatment and may remit over time
  • psychosocial functioning may remain impaired (functioning in relationships)
33
Q

how can we think of the following personality disorders in terms of expressions of the big five: borderline, avoidant, histrionic, obsessive-compulsive, schizoid, schizotypal?

A
  • borderline = high neuroticism
  • avoidant = extreme introversion + high neuroticism
  • histrionic = extreme extraversion
  • obsessive-compulsive = extreme conscientiousness
  • schizoid = extreme introversion + low neuroticism
  • schizotypal = introversion + high neuroticism + low agreeableness + extreme openness
34
Q

how can antisocial personality disorder be thought of in terms of expression of the big 5 traits?

A

antisocial = low agreeableness, low conscientiousness, low neuroticism, high extraversion

35
Q

what changes have been made to the DSM regarding personality disorders?

A
  • four traditional personality disorders have been removed because they are not sufficiently coherent, common, or distinct from the others
  • schizoid, histrionic, dependent, paranoid
  • a person can still be diagnosed, but would be categorized as “personality disorder-trait specified”
  • mainly characterized by impairments in personality functioning and pathological personality traits
36
Q

what are the evaluations of pathological personality traits based on the big five?

A
  1. negative affectivity – feeling negative emotions (high neuroticism)
  2. detachment – emotional withdrawal/avoidance (low extraversion)
  3. antagonism – deceitfulness, manipulativeness (low agreeableness)
  4. disinhibition – carelessness, impulsiveness (low conscientiousness)
  5. psychoticism – bizarre thoughts or experience (high Openness)
37
Q

what is positive psychology?

A
  • concerned with character strengths and virtues: flourishing and thriving
  • moves beyond simply treating mental illness and dysfunction
38
Q

what are character strengths and virtues?

A

there are 6 classes of virtue (“core virtues”) that make up of twenty-four measurable character strengths

39
Q

what is dispositional forgiveness?

A
  • tendency for forgiveness of self, others, and/or situations; also receiving forgiveness
  • associated with high agreeableness, low neuroticism, high conscientiousness, and high extraversion
  • also correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction
    • lower rumination, vengeance, hostility, anxiety, and depression
40
Q

what is mindfulness? what traits are correlated with mindfulness?

A
  • consists of a purposeful attention to and awareness of the present moment, approached with an attitude of openness, acceptance, and nonjudgment
  • there are individual differences in trait mindfulness (low neuroticism, high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, and high openness)
    • correlations could be bidirectional
  • also correlated with higher resilience because it increases the likelihood of regulating emotions successfully
41
Q

what is flow?

A
  • a state of complete absorptionin work, play, or creative expression
  • intense concentration, loss of self-awareness, loss of time and environmental awareness
  • feeling perfectly challenged (neither bored nor overwhelmed)
42
Q

what is an autotelic personality?

A
  • a disposition to actively seek challenges and flow experiences
  • correlated with low neuroticism and low agreeableness (low compliance and modesty)
  • correlated with high conscientiousness and high extraversion
  • correlations with openness are less consistent, may indicate that openness is a more cognitive trait while flow depends more on sensorimotor feedback
43
Q

what are the three personality factors that business leaders value the most?

A
  1. drive
  2. open-mindedness
  3. creativity
44
Q

how is the big five indicative of success?

A
  • high conscientiousness is the most important factor in hirability and success
    • also emotional stability and agreeableness
  • good leadership is correlated with low neuroticism, high openness, high extraversion, and balanced levels of conscientiousness, and agreeableness (caring but strong)
45
Q

what is the value of agreeableness?

A
  • summary of 142 meta-analyses reporting effects of agreeableness for 275 variables (health and illness, performance, career success, leadership, turnover, social factors)
  • agreeableness had effects in a desirable direction for 93% of variables examined
    • in contrast to current idea that you need to be pushy in order to get promoted
46
Q

what is the value of our differences?

A
  • work teams that are more diverse in ethnicity and gender are more productive, innovative, financially successful, make smarter decisions
  • in the short term, diversity can temporarily compromise health and wellbeing of society
    • in the long term, there is a net gain
  • strength lies in differences, not in similarities

PSYC 305 (4 decks)

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