Personality Disorders Midterm Review

Personality trait

A long standing pattern of behavior expressed across time and in many different situations.

Personality Disorder

Many personality traits that typically occur together.

Prototype

A psychological ideal found only rarely in nature.

DSM

Considered the 'bible' of mental disorders.

Diagnostic criteria

Defining characteristics used by professionals to diagnose mental disorders.

Personality

Enduring patterning of perception, emotion, thought, and behavior across time and context.

Personality disorder onset

Inflexible pervasive patterns causing clinically significant distress or impairment, stable since adolescence/early adulthood.

Cluster A

Personality disorders characterized by paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypical traits.

Cluster B

Personality disorders characterized by antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic traits.

Cluster C

Personality disorders characterized by avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive traits.

DSM Multiaxial Model

A model with multiple axes (1-5), each representing a different kind of source of information.

Axis 1

Clinical syndrome including anxiety, mood disorders, schizophrenia, substance abuse, eating disorders, and sexual disorders.

Axis 2

Personality disorders including schizoid, avoidant, depressive, dependent, histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, sadistic, compulsive, negativistic, masochistic, borderline, schizotypal, and paranoid.

Axis 3

General medical conditions relevant to understanding the person's Axis I or II disorder.

Axis 4

Psychological environmental problems including family, educational, occupational, housing, economic, and legal issues.

Axis 5

Global assessment of functioning, overall level of psychological, social, and occupational functioning.

Rule of Parsimony

Prefer the fewest, best-fitting patterns that explain the most data; beware diagnostic 'shopping'.

Assessments to diagnose a personality disorder

Includes clinical interviews, structured PD interviews, self-report inventories, informant reports, behavioral/record data, and performance-based tests.

Diagnostic Criteria (General)

At least 18 years of age, conduct patterns of disorder before age of 15, behaviors not better explained by other disorder, and not solely due to physiological effects of a substance.

Anti-Social PD

Characterized by reward dominance, empathy deficits, rule externalization, and impulsive, irresponsible, callous behavior.

Avoidant PD

Pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.