1. Personality Disorders
ANTI-SOCIAL
BORDERLINE
S

2. Personality Disorders
S Affects entire life adjustment of the
person
S Rigid, maladaptive pattern of behaviour
and ways of relating to others.
S Difficulty in fitting in with others or have
relatively normal social relationships.
S Three basic categories listed in DSM-IV:
those seen as odd or eccentric by
others, those in which their behaviour is
very dramaticor erratic, and those in
which the main emotion is anxiety or
fearfulness.
S 10 recognised types of personality

3. The Personality Disorders
Personality Disorder Description
Odd or Erratic
Paranoid Extreme suspicion of others
Schizoid Loners unable and unwilling to form close relationships
with others
Schizotypal Difficulty in forming social relationships, tendency to
hold magical beliefs
Dramatic or Erratic
Types
Antisocial Lacking in conscience or morals
Borderline Moody, unstable, lacking in clear sense of identity,
clingy
Histrionic Tendency to overreact and use excessive emotions to
draw attention from and manipulate others
Narcissistic Extremely vain and self-involved
Anxious or Fearful
Types

4. Antisocial Personality Disorder
S Literally “against society”
S Sometimes called a sociopath, habitually breaks the law,
disobey rules, tells lies, uses other people without emotional
concern.
S Stigma of serial killer – but most are not killers!
S Gender difference – three to six times as many males
diagnosed as females
S Typically evident by age of 15

5. Criticisms Of ASPD
S DSM-IV-TR considers ASPD and psychopathy to be the same,
or similar – BUT ASPD is diagnosed via behavior and social
deviance whereas psychopathy includes affective and
interpersonal personality factors.
S Nearly 80%–95% of felons will meet criteria for ASPD whereas
psychopathy is found in only roughly 20% of inmates
S American Psychiatric Association states in the DSM-IV-TR that
"psychopathy" and "sociopathy" are now obsolete synonyms.

6. Borderline Personality
Disorder
S Intense and relatively unstable relationships
with other people
S Often moody, manipulative, untrusting of
others, self-mutilating behaviour
S May engage in excessive spending, drug
abuse or suicidal behaviour (may be part of
manipulation used against others in a
relationship)
S Confusion over identity issues, in which the
person may be unable to focus on life goals, Fatal Attraction
career choices, friendships and even sexual
behaviour.
S Two in every 100 in Australia (SANE, 2004).

7. Causes
S

8. Behavioural - Cognitive
S Specific behaviour learned over time through
reinforcement, shaping and modeling.
S Belief systems formed by the personality disordered
person.

9. Biological
S Close biological relatives of people with disorders (e.g.
antisocial, schizotypal and borderline) are more likely to have
these disorders than those who are not related.
S Adoption studies of children whose biological parents had
antisocial personality disorder show an increased risk for that
disorder.
S Some research shows a greater risk of schizophrenia in
relatives of people with schizotypal personality disorder. Only a
small proportion of people with schizotypal develop full-blown
schizophrenia.

10. Diathesis-Stress
S Disturbances in family relationships and communication
have also been linked to personality disorders and, in
particular, antisocial personality disorder.
S Childhood abuse, neglect, overly strict parenting, over-
protective parenting, and parental rejection have all been
put forth as possible causes.