Personality Disorders Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, models, diagnostic criteria, and treatments related to personality disorders from the lecture.

Personality

A person’s stable, consistent, and distinctive patterns of thinking, feeling, acting, and relating to the world.

Personality Trait

Enduring tendency to behave, think, and feel in specific ways that show consistency across situations and over time, and vary between people.

Criteria for Personality Traits

(1) Consistent across situations, (2) stable over time, (3) show meaningful individual differences.

Five-Factor Model (OCEAN)

Broad trait taxonomy comprising Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

HEXACO Model

Six-factor personality structure: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness (versus Anger), Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience.

Honesty-Humility

HEXACO dimension describing sincerity, fairness, modesty, and lack of greed.

Emotionality (HEXACO)

Tendency toward fearfulness, anxiety, dependence, and sentimentality.

Extraversion

Trait involving sociability, liveliness, assertiveness, and positive affect.

Agreeableness (versus Anger)

Disposition toward patience, forgiveness, cooperation versus anger and hostility.

Conscientiousness

Organization, diligence, reliability, self-discipline, and goal-directedness.

Openness to Experience

Curiosity, imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, and preference for novelty and variety.

Livesley’s Three Life Tasks

(1) Form coherent self/other representations, (2) develop capacity for intimacy, (3) engage in pro-social, cooperative behaviour.

Personality Disorder (PD)

Enduring, maladaptive pattern of inner experience and behaviour causing distress or impairment, deviating from cultural expectations.

Millon’s Criteria for Disordered Personality

Patterns that are rigid/inflexible, self-defeating vicious cycles, and structurally unstable (“crack” under stress).

Egosyntonic

Symptoms are experienced as acceptable or consistent with one’s self-image, often limiting insight (common in PDs).

MCMI-IV

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory; self-report test measuring 15 clinical and three severe personality pathology scales.

MMPI PSY-5 Scales

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory indices of Aggressiveness, Psychoticism, Disconstraint, Negative Emotionality, and Introversion.

Aggressiveness (PSY-5)

Instrumental, goal-directed hostility toward others.

Psychoticism (PSY-5)

Tendency toward odd thinking, perceptual distortions, and detachment from reality.

Disconstraint

Under-controlled, impulsive, risk-taking behaviour pattern.

Negative Emotionality / Neuroticism

Chronic worry, fear, insecurity, and anxiety.

Introversion / Low Positive Emotionality

Social disengagement, low energy, and reduced capacity for pleasure.

DSM-5 General PD Criteria

Enduring, pervasive, inflexible pattern causing distress/impairment, stable since adolescence, not due to another disorder or substance.

Cluster A

Odd/Eccentric PDs: Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal—share social withdrawal and unusual thinking.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Pervasive distrust and suspiciousness; interprets others’ motives as malevolent, holds grudges, quick to perceive threats.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Detachment from social relationships and restricted emotional expression; prefers solitude, indifferent to praise or criticism.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Social/interpersonal deficits with cognitive-perceptual distortions and eccentric behaviour; ideas of reference, odd beliefs, and excessive social anxiety.

Cluster B

Dramatic, Emotional, Erratic PDs: Antisocial, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Borderline; problems with impulse control and affect regulation.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Disregard for and violation of others’ rights since age 15; deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggression, irresponsibility, lack of remorse.

Psychopathy

Non-DSM construct emphasizing affective/interpersonal traits—superficial charm, callousness, lack of remorse—alongside ASPD behaviours.

Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

20-item rating scale assessing psychopathic traits; scores ≥30 (US) indicate psychopathy.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Excessive emotionality and attention-seeking; theatrical, impressionistic speech, shallow shifting emotions, inappropriate seductiveness.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy; entitlement, exploitative behaviour, envy, arrogant attitudes.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Instability in relationships, self-image, affect, and marked impulsivity; frantic avoidance of abandonment, chronic emptiness, self-harm threats.

Cluster C

Anxious/Fearful PDs: Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive; overlap with anxiety and depressive features.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, hypersensitivity to criticism; avoids relationships unless certain of acceptance.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Excessive need to be cared for, submissive/clinging behaviour, fears of separation, difficulty making decisions without reassurance.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)

Preoccupation with order, perfectionism, control; rigidity, miserly spending, over-conscientiousness, impaired flexibility and efficiency.

Schema Therapy

CBT-based approach targeting maladaptive schemas and core beliefs underlying personality disorders.

Object-Relations Therapy (for BPD)

Psychodynamic treatment that strengthens ego, reduces splitting, and fosters stable self-object representations.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Evidence-based treatment for BPD combining acceptance and CBT strategies; teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.