Chapter Sixteen: Personality Disorders

Personality

A set of uniquely expressed characteristics that influence our behaviors, emotions, thoughts, and interactions

Personality Disorder

When people display an enduring, rigid pattern of inner experience and outward behavior that impairs their sense of self, emotional experiences, goals, capacity for empathy, and/or capacity for intimacy

Dimensional Approach

Disorders are classified by the severity of personality traits rather than by the presence or absence of specific traits

Ideas of Reference

Beliefs that unrelated events pertain to them in some important way

Bodily Illusions

Sensing an external force or presence

Operant conditioning

Some parents unintentionally teach antisocial behavior by regularly rewarding a childs aggressive behavior

Mentalization

Peoples capacity to understand their own mental states and those of other people

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

A comprehensive treatment approach, applied particularly in cases of borderline personality disorder and/or suicidal intent; includes both individual therapy sessions and group sessions

Personality Disorder-Trait Specified (PDTS)

A personality disorder currently undergoing study for possible inclusion in a future revision of DSM-5

Negative Affectivity

People experience negative emotions frequently and intensely

Emotional Lability

Unstable emotions

Preservation

Repetition of certain behaviors despite repeated failures

Detachment

People tend to withdraw from other people and social interactions

Restricted Emotional Reactivity

Little reaction to emotionally arousing situations

Anhedonia

Inability to feel pleasure or take interest in things

Antagonism

People behave in ways that put them at odds with other people

Psychoticism

People have unusual and bizarre experiences