Personality Disorders Quiz

Cluster A

Odd/Eccentric personality disorders

Cluster B

Dramatic/Erratic/Emotional personality disorders

Cluster C

Anxious/fearful personality disorders

Paranoid personality disorder

pervasive distrust, suspicious of others, on the lookout for signs of trickery or abuse

-hostility/reluctance to confide—unlikely to seek treatment, no treatment found effective

-less than 1%, more common in men

Schizoid Personality Disorder

no desire for social relationships or intimacy of any kind, indifferent flattened affect, takes pleasure in few activities

-Treatment: Social Skills training

-do not often seek treatment, do not connect with the therapist

Schizotypal personality disorder

marked social/interpersonal deficits, eccentric speech patterns, odd beliefs, magical thinking, delusions of reference, paranoid ideation and social anxiety, odd perceptual experiences, constricted/inappropriate affect

-Treatment: preventing onset of schizophrenia (antipsychotics, social skills training, often comorbid with Depression!

-3%, more common in men

Antisocial Personality disorder

pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others without remorse; impulsive, manipulative, superficially charming, pathological lying/conning, inconsistency with occupational duties, lack of empathy

-often comorbid with SUD

-Rarely seek treatment (no feelings of remorse or regret)

-many cannot be rehabilitated and end up incarcerated

Psychopathy

the extreme end of the APD spectrum; sadism, egocentricity, very charming, no empathy or remorse, fearlessness, pathological lying and manipulation, often the case when someone becomes dangerous (e.g. serial killers)

-next to impossible to treat due to excellent manipulation and faking charm

Conduct disorder

60% who were diagnosed with this in childhood end up diagnosed with APD in adulthood

Treatment for APD

Parent traning?

Causes of APD

Genetics play a role—run in fams

Childhood trauma and caregiver attachment issues

Underarousal hypothesis and Fearlessness hypothesis

Borderline Personality Disorder

-most common personality disorder

pervasive pattern of impulsivity/instability in relationships, mood and self-esteem

-frequent suicidal/self-mutilation behavior

-turbulent attachment

-frantic efforts to avoid abandonment

-risky behavior

-unstable sense of self

-chronic feelings of emptiness

-inappropriate, intense anger

-frequent crises

Often misdiagnosed as Bipolar, very hard to treat because of intensity of drama

Treatment for BPD

Dialectical Behavior Therapy—4 skills (mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation)

Histrionic Personality Disorder

pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking

-uncomfortable when not center of attention

-interactions with others often includes sexually seductive or provocative behavior

-rapidly shifting/shallow expression of emotion

-thinks their relationships are more genuine than they are

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

-grandiose sense of self importance

-fantasies of success, power, idealized love, or beauty

-beliefs that they are “special” or “unique”

-requires excessive admiration

-entitled

-exploitive, lack of empathy

-envious of others, believes others are envious of them

Treatments for NPD and HPD

not very effective, many complications