Personality Disorders

Front 1

Define personality disorders

Back 1

A heterogenous group of disorders defined by long-standing, pervasive, and inflexible patterns of behavior and inner experience that deviate from the expectations of a person's culture

Front 2

What type of personality disorders are cluster A?

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Odd or eccentric behavior

Front 3

What type of personality disorders are cluster B?

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Dramatic, emotional or erratic behavior

Front 4

What type of personality disorders are cluster C?

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Anxious or fearful behavior

Front 5

What are the cluster A (odd/eccentric) personality disorders?

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Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal

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Key feature of paranoid personality disorder

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Distrust and suspiciousness of others

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Key feature of schizoid personality disorder

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Detachment from social relationships and restricted range of emotional expression

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Key feature of schizotypal personality disorder

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Lack of capacity for close relationships, cognitive distortions and eccentric behavior

Front 9

What are the cluster B (dramatic/erratic) personality disorders?

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Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, and Narcissistic

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Key feature of antisocial personality disorder

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Disregard for and violation of the rights of others

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Key feature of borderline personality disorder

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Instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affect, as well as marked impulsivity

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Key feature of histrionic personality disorder

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Excessive emotionality and attention seeking

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Key feature of narcissistic personality disorder

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Grandiosity, need for attention, and lack of empathy

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What are the cluster C (anxious/fearful) personality disorders?

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Avoidant, Dependent, and Obsessive-compulsive

Front 15

Key feature of avoidant personality disorder

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Social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation

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Key feature of dependent personality disorder

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Excessive need to be taken care of, submissive behavior, and fears of separation

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Key feature of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

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Preoccupation with order, perfection and control

Front 18

Five-Factor Model

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A dimensional approach to personality that classifies personality traits on a continuum. The five factors or major dimensions of personality are neuroticism, extraversion/introversion, openness to experience, agreeableness/antagonism, and conscientiousness. The dimensions of personality are moderately heritable, and the patterns of heritability for these dimensions are consistent across cultures.

Front 19

How does paranoid personality disorder differ from schizophrenia?

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Specific symptoms like hallucinations are not present with paranoid personality disorder and there is less impairment in social and occupational functioning

Front 20

Which personality disorders does it frequently co-occur with?

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Schizotypal, borderline, and avoidant

Front 21

Name personality disorder: They expect to be mistreated or exploited and thus are secretive and continually on the lookout for signs of trickery and abuse. They are often hostile and react angrily to perceived insults. They might read hidden threatening messages into events.

Back 21

Paranoid

Front 22

People with what personality disorder do not desire or enjoy social relationships and usually have no close friends?

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Schizoid

Front 23

Name the personality disorder: They appear dull, bland, and aloof and have no warm, tender feelings for other people. They rarely experience strong emotions, are not interested in sex, and have few pleasurable activities. Indifferent to praise, criticism, and the sentiment of others. People with this disorder are loners who pursue solitary interests.

Back 23

Schizoid

Front 24

What personality disorders is schizoid personality disorder show the highest comorbidity?

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Schizotypal, avoidant and paranoid

Front 25

People with this personality disorder are often socially isolated but also have more eccentric symptoms that are milder versions of the schizophrenia symptoms.

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Schizotypal

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People with this disorder might have odd beliefs or magical thinking for instance, the belief that they can read other people's minds and see into the future.

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Schizotypal

Front 27

What is a major cause of the odd thinking, bizarre behavior and interpersonal difficulties seen in cluster A personality disorders?

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Genetics or heritability. Genes that increase risk for schizophrenia overlap with those that increase risk for schizotypal personality disorder.

Front 28

Name personality disorder: Emotions are intense, erratic and can shift abruptly, particularly from passionate idealization to contemptuous anger. Their unpredictable, impulsive and potentially self-damaging behavior might include gambling, reckless spending, indiscriminate sexual activity, and substance abuse. They cannot bear to be alone, have fears of abandonment, demand attention, and experience chronic feelings of depression and emptiness. They may experience transient psychotic and dissociative symptoms when stressed.

Back 28

Borderline

Front 29

Explain two causes of BPD

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Neurobiological factors: Deficits in the neurotransmitter serotonin are associated with impulsivity and emotion dysregulation. Low frontal lobe functioning and structural changes in prefrontal cortex may explain impulsivity since prefrontal cortex is thought to help control impulsiveness. Genetic vulnerability to BPD might overlap with genetic vulnerability to mood disorders. Parents of people with BPD have elevated rates of mood disorders. Some neurological characteristics might be more related to emotional dysregulation. For example, people with BPD have increased activation of the amygdala which is correlated to many disorders that involve intense emotions (i.e., mood disorders and anxiety disorders).
Social factors: People with BPD are more likely to report a history of parental separation, verbal abuse and emotional abuse during childhood than are people diagnosed with other Axis II disorders. People with BPD frequently display dissociative symptoms which suggests BPD and DID might be related and that in both, dissociation is caused by the extreme stress of child abuse.
Objects relations theory: This theory focuses on the way children internalize their images of people who are important to them, such as their parents. It focuses on how children identify with people to whom they have strong emotional attachments. These internalized images or object relations become part of the person's ego and influence how the person reacts to the world. Adverse childhood experiences causes children to internalize disturbed object representations that fail to integrate the loving and unloving aspects of people who are close to them. These disturbed object relations causes them to develop insecure egos. To avoid perceived relationship threats, people with BPD often use a defense mechanism called splitting.
Linehan's diathesis-stress theory: Marsha Linehan proposes that BPD develops when people who have difficulty controlling their emotions because of a biological diathesis (possibly genetic) are raised in a family environment that is invalidating. A diathesis of emotional dysregulation interacts with experiences of invalidation to promote the development of BPD. This emotional dysregulation in the child causes the child to make great demands on the family. Invalidation occurs by parents through punishing or ignoring the demands which leads to child suppressing emotions. The child has emotional outbursts which parents attend, reinforcing aversive behavior and continuing cycle of dysregulation and invalidation.

Front 30

What is splitting as seen in people with BPD?

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Dichotomizing objects into all good or all bad and failing to integrate positive and negative aspects of another person or the self into a whole. This tendency causes extreme difficulty in regulating emotions because people with BPD see the world, including themselves, in black-and-white terms.