PSY240: - L17&18

Lecture §

• What is the difference between personality, treats, and personality disorders
  • Personality: consistent behaviour and thinking characteristics of a person
  • Trait: characteristic features of a person that displayed persistency
  • Personality Disorders: maladaptive, inflexible, and restricted ways of behaving, feeling, and thinking (sigle dominant trait)
• What is the difference between egosyntonic and egodystonic
  • Egosyntonic: behaviors, values, and feelings that are in harmony with or acceptable to the needs and goals of the ego
  • Egodystonic: behaviors, values, and feelings that are not in harmony with or acceptable to the needs and goals of the ego
• Prevalence
  • $6-9\%$ of the population
  • Diagnostic for adults
  • psychological autopsies
    • A set of interviews to determine whether a person was suffering from personality disorder after suicide
• Diagnostic Criteria for Cluster A
  • Paranoid Personality Disorder
    • $>4/7$: Pervasive suspiciousness, non-bizarre symptoms
    • Differential diagnosis with Schizophrenia
      • Reality testing, paranoid people would look for actual evidence, schizophrenia will not with their delusions
  • Schizoid Personality Disorder
    • $>4/7$: Lack of emotional responsiveness, loners symptoms
  • Schizotypal Personality Disorder
    • $>5/9$: Eccentricity, socially isolated symptoms
    • Differential diagnosis with Schizophrenia
      • Don’t have hallucinations and delusions (reality testing)
    • Cooccur with Mood Disorder
• Diagnostic Criteria for Cluster B
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder
    • $>3/7$ Disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others symptoms
    • Differential diagnostics
      • Narcissistic: exploitive and uncompassionate, but not aggressive or deceitful
      • BPD: manipulative, but reassurance and nurture
      • Substance use: must be ruled out
• Etiology for Antisocial Personality Disorder
  • Family: disruptive
  • Genetics: heritability $44-72\%$
  • Fearlessness hypothesis
    • A higher threshold for feeling fear than do other people
    • Indifferent to punishment, or oppositional to others’ attempts to control them
    • Based on early learning experiences
• What is the difference between psychopathy and ASPD
  • ASPD: diagnosis based on behavioural features
  • Psychopathy: a richer set of emotional, interpersonal, and behavioural features
  • Psychopathy and aggression: strong link
  • Prevalence: $1\%$ of population
  • Etiology
    • Amygdala
    • Serotonergic hypofunctioning in combination with a high dopamine activity
    • Fundamental psychopathy vs. Secondary psychopathy
      • Biological predisposition vs Negative environmental experiences in childhood
• Diagnostic criteria for BPD
  • $>5/9$ Grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy symptoms
  • Female > Male $80\%$ female prevelance
• Etiology for BPD
  • Disruption in the family
    • Childhood abuse, sexual abuse, neglect
    • Preoccupied Attachment attachment disorder
    • Family transmission
  • Brain dysfunction
    • Reduced right hippocampal volume
    • Reduced grey matter in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (executive function for WM)
    • Both are involved in sustaining and controlling impulsive and aggressive behavior
  • Biosocial theory
    • Dysfunction of the emotion regulation system
  • Cognitive-Behavioural perspective
    • Schemas developed early in life