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Comparison of personality disorder types

Abstract

People who suffer from personality disorders often display deviant behavior. They typically have problems with social skills, mood swings, emotional states, and are often unable to maintain healthy relationships. Many people do not possess the capability to have genuine emotions, including empathy for others. A personality disorder is the basis of many circumstances of odd behavior including substance abuse, self-harm, suicide, and criminality. There are ten different personality disorders, each having specific symptoms, but all of them share certain characteristics.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are a group of mental illnesses. They involve long-term patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are unhealthy and inflexible (Health Topics: Medline Plus, n. d.). Personality disorders come in three categories, or clusters. Cluster A, also known as the odd, or eccentric cluster, comprises of disorders subjugated by distorted thinking. There are three personality disorders branded in Cluster A. They are Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal personality disorders. Common features of these personality disorders are social awkwardness and withdrawal. Cluster B is known as the dramatic cluster. It includes, Borderline disorder, Narcissistic disorder, Histrionic disorder, and Antisocial disorder. Features of this cluster are problems with impulsiveness and emotional directive.  Cluster C is called the anxious or fearful cluster. This cluster includes the Avoidant disorder, Dependent disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. All three personality disorders share a high amount of anxiety.

Firstly, paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a rampant distrust and suspiciousness of other people. Individuals with this disorder assume that others are out to damage them, take advantage of them, or humiliate them in some way. They put a lot of effort into protecting themselves and keeping their distance from others. They are also known to attack others when they feel threatened. Individuals with paranoid personality disorders tend to hold grudges, are very touchy, and display an unreasonable amount of jealously. Their perception of the environment comprises of reading genuinely harmless comments or behaviors as malicious intentions. The cause of this could be due to them dwelling on past conflicts. For these reasons, they do not disclose their feelings or thoughts to others and don’t allow themselves to develop close relationships. Their emotional life tends to be dominated by distrust and animosity.

The second disorder is schizoid personality disorder. It is categorized as a pervasive pattern of social disinterest and has a restricted range of emotional expression. Basically, individuals with this disorder tend to be socially isolated. They don’t seem to seek out or enjoy close relationships. They almost always chose solitary activities and seem to take slight pleasure in life. These individuals often prefer systematic or abstract activities that involve very little human interaction. They are indifferent to both criticism and praise. Emotionally, they seem standoffish, detached, and cold. They can be oblivious to social cues causing them to appear socially incompetent and shallow. With their limited emotions and failure to respond to gestures or facial expressions, such a smile can cause them to appear somewhat dull, plain, or careless. Although, the schizoid personality disorder appears to be quite rare.

The third and final disorder in Cluster A is schizotypal personality disorder. Schizotypal personality disorder is characterized as a pattern of social and interpersonal limits. People who are schizotypal experience severe discomfort in social settings and have a reduced capacity for close relationships. They tend to be socially secluded, reserved, and detached. Unlike the schizoid personality disorder, they experience perceptual and cognitive misrepresentations and some eccentric behavior. These perceptual anomalies can include noticing flashes of light that no one else can see, or even seeing objects or shadows in the corner of their eyes. People with Schizotypal Personality Disorder have odd beliefs, for instance, they may believe they can read other people’s thoughts, or that that their own thoughts have been stolen from their heads. These odd or superstitious beliefs and fantasies are inconsistent with cultural norms. (Hoermann & Zupannick, n. d.).

In Cluster B enters borderline personality disorder. Individuals with borderline disorder experience intense and unstable emotions that can shift very suddenly. When these individuals get upset its quite difficult to calm them down. Because of this, they will have various angry outbursts and become very impulsive.  Borderline personality disorder was called this, because it was thought to lie on the “ borderline” between neurotic (anxiety) disorders and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (Burton, 2012).  People with borderline personality disorder tend to see the world as black or white. This makes it easy for them to misunderstand the actions and motivations of other people.

Narcissistic disorder and histrionic disorder seem like they are the same but are quite different. People with narcissistic disorder are engrossed with fantasies of boundless success and power, so much so that they end up fantasizing about their “ superior intelligence or stunning beauty.” When narcissistic people realize that they have normal, average human limitations or that they are not as special as they think, they become devasted.  People with histrionic disorder are quite flirtatious or seductive, and like to behave in ways that draws attention to them. They can be colorful and theatrical, displaying an exaggerated degree of emotion. When histrionic people are not the center of attention, they become very depressed. Narcissistic people believe they are better than others, while histrionic people want all eyes on them no matter what.

Antisocial personality disorder is defined as disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Antisocial individuals display hostility or aggression and can be very deceitful and manipulative. The hostile tendencies usually begin in childhood. Children who are antisocial tend to harm animals and other people. They are reckless and engage in criminalistic behavior, such as arson, theft, and other violent crimes. Persons with Antisocial Personality Disorder typically do not experience remorse for the harm they cause others.

However, they can become quite skillful at pretending to feel remorse when it is in their best interest to do so. People who are sociopaths or psychopaths are also considered to have antisocial personality disorder.

The avoidant personality disorder is defined as a social inhibition. These people have feelings of inadequacy. People with this disorder are intensely afraid that others will reject them or criticize them. This leads them to avoid social situations and to avoid interactions with others. They often have a very partial social world with a small circle of friends. Their way of thinking about and interpreting the world revolves around the thought that they are not good enough. They think of themselves as unappealing and socially incompetent. These types of thoughts create feelings of intense anxiety in social situations. The intensity of this anxiety, and the discomfort forces them to avoid interpersonal situations. They might avoid parties or social events and may have difficulty giving presentations at work or speaking up in meetings. Others might perceive them as distant or shy.

Dependent personality disorder is described as a strong need to be taken care of by other people. This need to be taken care of is what gives these people the nickname “ clingy.” In order to avoid conflict, they will not stand up for themselves. The strong fear of losing a relationship makes them vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. They find it difficult to express difference or make independent decisions. Being alone is extremely hard for them. When someone with dependent personality disorder fails at a relationship that they depended on, they will immediately seek another source of support.

People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are worried with rules, regulations, and orderliness. This preoccupation with perfectionism and control is at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. A person with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are great makers of lists and schedules but may be overly focused on details or schedules, may work excessively not allowing time for leisure or friends. They have perfectionist tendencies and are so driven in their work. They become unable to complete projects or specific tasks because they get lost in the details and fail to see the bigger picture. It simply isn’t an option for them to do a standard job just to get something done. Often, they are unable to handout tasks for fear that another person will not get it right. People with this disorder are frequently known as stiff, controlling, and stubborn.

There are ten different types of personality disorders and they are categorized into three different clusters. Each cluster provides an organized and reliable way for psychologists to diagnose individuals properly. All clusters have symptoms that range from mild to severe. People under Cluster A tend to be eccentric and odd. While Individuals under Cluster B are dramatic. People under Cluster C like A are odd but only because they are fearful of social interaction.

References

  • Burton, N. (2012, May 29). The 10 Personality Disorders . Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www. psychologytoday. com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/the-10-personality-disorders
  • Health Topics: Medline Plus . (n. d.). Retrieved from MedlinePlus: https://medlineplus. gov/personalitydisorders. html
  • Hoermann, S., & Zupannick, C. (n. d.). DSM-5: The Ten Personality Disorders . Retrieved from Mental Help: https://www. mentalhelp. net/articles/dsm-5-the-ten-personality-disorders-cluster-a/
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