15.2 Personality, Dissociative, and anxiety disorders

Question 1

DSM-5

Answer 1

lists 10 personality disorders

organized in three broader categories (clusters)

Question 2

Cluster A personality disorders

Answer 2

statistically unusual and problematic behaviour patterns

• paranoid personality disorder (fearful)
• schizoid personality disorder (socially uninterested)
• schizotypal personality disorder (highly superstitious)

Question 3

Cluster B personality disorders

Answer 3

unpredictable and unusual emotional reaction and emotion-related behaviour patterns

• antisocial personality disorder (no remorse)
• borderline “ “ (wildly fluctuate from +to-emotional states)
• Histrionic “ “ (outrageous types who must always ve the centre of attention)
• Narcissistic “ “

Question 4

Cluster C Personality disorders

Answer 4

highly anxious and inhibited behaviour patterns

• avoidant
• dependent
• OCD

Question 5

Personality disorder not otherwise specified

Answer 5

-if not known which cluster or which disorder

Question 6

Borderline personality Disorder (BDP)

Answer 6

involves erratic fluctuations between intense emotional states

• ppl with BDP have great difficulty maintaining long term social relationships
• BDP unpredictably experience life in extreme positive and negative reactions
• those with BDP are very prone to be possessive and to manipulate friends and romantic partners as a way to control their jealousy and fears of abandonment
• BDP is though to be the result of particularly abusive, inconsistent or neglectful parenting
• Those with BDP tend to manage their extreme emotional experiences with self destructive behaviours, like cutting or substance abuse

Question 7

Narcissistic personality disorder (NDP)

Answer 7

those with NPD consider themselves as better and far more important than other people
-Ppl with NPD demand to be the centre of everyones attention
-ppl with NPD are also very insecure about threats to their position of superiority
ppl with NPD think of themselves as better, so they consider themselves as entitled to more of everything than everyone else
-

Question 8

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD)

Answer 8

• prone to very dramatic emotional expressions with the objective of always being the centre of attention
• charming, provocative and outrageous, these people have a toolkit that allows them to pull focus in any situation
• the need to always be the enter of attention makes ppl with HPD prone to engage in risky and self destructive behaviour
• fulfilling their need for attention means that ppl with HPD will develop skills to selfishly manipulate and control others
• They will also tend to be aggressive at defending against threats to their role as the most popular and notorious person around

Question 9

antisocial personalty disorder (ADP)

Answer 9

these ppl utterly lack concern for other ppls perspective or feelings

• they are chronically selfish and will lie, cheat, steal, and abuse others to achieve their goals
• they will be cruel and cause pain to other ppl and animals, without any remorse
• the clever ones avoid getting caught either by covering their tracks, getting power and abusing it, engaging in intimidation, or by exploiting loopholes
• ppl with APD do not respond very much to stimuli that cause stress rxns in most ppl
• as a result, ppl with APD do not experience any forms of punishment as a deterrent
• their low baseline for experiencing stimulation makes them prone to engage in extreme, dangerous, and sometimes horrifically violent behaviours
• remorseless mass murderers, like Charles Manson and ted bundy are two of the most famous APD individuals

Question 10

psychological influences on cluster b personality disorders

Answer 10

• underneath their symptoms, ppl with narcissistic and histrionic personality disorder seem to possess low confidence and the fear that they are inherently defective or worthless
• a lack of self confidence also underlies BPD (as well as the lack of a sense of self that is separate from moment to moment experiences)
• the absence of normal stress response seems to be a critical underlying feature of antisocial personality disorder

Question 11

environmental influences on cluster b

Answer 11

For all 4 disorders, childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or neglect are major risk factors
-APD might reflect a numbness that comes from a childhood of being treated with extreme cruelty, as though they are merely an object to be exploited without concern for their feelings

Question 12

Biological influences on cluster b

Answer 12

researchers also consider the genes a person inherited from their parents as a major factor in their development of a personality disorder such as genes that generate particularly high responsiveness in emotion-related brain areas, in the case of HBP, BPD, and NPD

Question 13

Co-Morbidity

Answer 13

when a person possesses the features of more than one mental disorder
-it can be difficult to determine the root cause of personality disorder symptoms bc ppl with those disorders tend also to have other metal disorders, such as drug or alcohol addiction

Question 14

Dissociative disorders

Answer 14

these involve a severe disconnection bw a persons conscious awareness and their feelings, behaviours or memories

Question 15

Dissociative fugue

Answer 15

occurs when a person loses large chunks of their identity and personal history, in the absence of any neurological damage

Question 16

Depersonalization disorder

Answer 16

when an individual develops the strong impression that they are not actually a part of their own body

Question 17

dissociative amnesia

Answer 17

when a person loses their memory for significant chunks of their life experience, w/o any neurological basis fro explaining it

Question 18

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Answer 18

occurs when a person experiences their personality as having divided into separate entities, called alters
-the disorder is thought to emerge as a strategy for protecting part of ones consciousness from the pain of emotionally traumatic experiences

Question 19

Skeptics are concerned that (DID)…

Answer 19

might be instilled w/in a person by therapists looking for multiple personalities in patients who did not start off with more than one

Question 20

Cook country Illinois feb 204

Answer 20

Elizabeth gale entered therapy in 1936 for mild depression and came to believe that she had multiple personality disorder and was a part of an intergenerational stanic cult that abused children. through the course of therapy, Ms. Gale also came to believe that she had bred children for the cult who were then sacrificed and cannibalized. she recieved $7.5 million in her malpractice suit against the therapist and doctors who treated her

Question 21

could psychotherapist be causing dissociative identity disorder?

Answer 21

psychotherapy is a powerful social context in which there is a distinct power imbalance
-DID was never diagnose in japan until Japanese psychologist learned about it from North american psychologists after 1990

Question 22

Anxiety disorders

Answer 22

Characterized by fear responses that are out of proportion to the true threat posed by the sources of ones fear

Question 23

Fight or flight response

Answer 23

fear is designed to get us energized to respond to actual threat to our survival

Question 24

generalize anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 24

individuals with this disorder react with intense fear to normal daily stressors/life’s challenges

Question 25

panic disorder

Answer 25

the state of anxiety is not constant, but it occurs in extreme unpredictable burst of fear and dread call panic attacks

Question 26

agoraphobia

Answer 26

occurs when a persons fear of having a panic attack in public causes them to avoid public spaces

Question 27

specific phobias

Answer 27

are when an individual possesses extreme, irrational fear of particular objects, activities or organisms

Question 28

social phobias

Answer 28

chronic concerns over being judged negatively by others and a constant fear of being publicly humiliated
-this will result in extreme discomfort in crowds, and when the individual thinks it will be difficult to quickly escape social situations

Question 29

anxiety disorders

Answer 29

generate a vicious cycle

• i wont know what to say, they’ll think I’m boring and stupid
• avoidance of social situations
• anxiety/embarassment

-ex. i’m terrified of snakes-i know ill completely avoid snakes-oh no its a snake-i’m terrified of snakes

Question 30

exposure

Answer 30

to the source of ones fears is the best way to overcome those fears

Question 31

OCD

Answer 31

involves a combo of irrational, persistent thoughts (or obsessions) and the irresistible urge to engage in repetitive behaviours (or compulsions)

Question 32

Personality disorders

Answer 32

the patterns of maladaptive behaviour, emotional reactions or patterns of thinking are very resistant to change
-patterns of behaviour that are quite rare within ones culture and they are maladaptive (they disrupt the individuals or other peoples safety or well being)