PSY240H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Social Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Attention Seeking
Personality (LECTURE 10)
Persona–Latin word for a theatrical mask or a character played by an actor
• Personality–Broad individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling,
and behaving
• Complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics, expressed
automatically in all areas of functioning
• Not to be confused with temperament–basic biological disposition toward emotional,
motor, and attentional tendencies and capacities
Google: Trait & social cognitive perspectives of the self.
OCEAN Personality Type described online
Video (Came in late during this video)
Bandura Type
External vs Internal Locus of Control
Different types of tests.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality test is most well used.
Humanistic Psychologists like Maslove reject these tests and they try to figure out who the
person is and who they would like to be and the idea is the farther apart these two are the more
miserable you are.
LOOK AT OCEAN TRAIT PERSONALITY DISORDER CORRELATION CHART ON
SLIDES.
Stability – state of being unchanged over time
Typically, research finds that our personality are moderately stable (correlation of .55-.70)
Most constructs in psych have correlations of around (.30), so numbers like this are quite
impressive so the only more consistent thing in psychology than personality is IQ (unless you
have some sort of brain injury).
Personality stability does increase with age.
Personality traits get most stable by age 50 (very few changes in personality after age 50 for the
average person).
Decreases as the time interval between observation increases (so personality seems to be more
stable when you measure in closer together in close intervals).
It does not vary markedly across the Big Five traits according to assessment method, or by
gender.
Personality disorders – heterogeneous group of disorders – Enduring patterns of behavior and
inner experience
• Cognition, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, or impulse control
– Deviate markedly from the expectations of culture
– Maladaptive/dysfunctional
• Impairs social or academic/occupational functioning • May cause clinically significant distress
– Inflexible and pervasive across situations (people can sort of change who they are depending
on the situation but with personality disorders its people who can’t do that)
– Stable and of long duration, onset can be traced back to
adolescence/early adulthood
-Basically, regular personality traits are expressed as – more extreme
– more rigid and inflexible
-Extremely common, ~14% of Americans have a personality disorder
Conceptualization of Typical Vs Disordered Personality
Millon’s (1986) criteria to distinguish typical vs disordered personality
1. Rigid and inflexible behavior (difficulty altering behavior according to situational
changes)
2. Self-defeating behavior that fosters vicious cycles (behaviors and cognitions perpetuate
and exacerbate problems)
3. Structural Instability (A fragility that is apparent under conditions of stress).
Livesley’s (1998) essential life tasks
1) Form stable, integrated, and coherent representations of the self and others
2) Develop capacity for intimacy and positive affiliations with others
3) Function adaptively in society by engaging in prosocial behaviors
Personality Disorders (Development and Course)
By definition, onset no later than early adulthood (usually recognized during adolescence or
early adulthood).
By definition, relatively stable over time Some personality disorders (e.g., antisocial and
borderline personality disorders) tend to become less evident or remit with age
For a personality disorder to be diagnosed in an individual younger than 18 years, the features
must have been present for at least 1 year Exception is antisocial personality disorder, cannot be
diagnosed in individuals younger than 18 years.
May be exacerbated following the loss of significant supporting persons or previously stabilizing
social situations
Change in personality in middle adulthood or later warrants a thorough evaluation to determine
the possible presence of a personality change due to another medical condition or an
unrecognized substance use disorder
Issues in Categorizing Personality Disorders
1) Stability of Diagnosis (By definition, PD’s are presumed to be more stable over time than
most other disorders). But some studies have criticized test/re-test reliability of
personality disorders.
2) Cluster B disorders have the greatest stability over time (but antisocial personality
disorder and borderline personality disorders tend to remit over time so what that tells us
is stability in diagnosis is not strong).
3) Comorbidity among personality disorders; lack specificity in diagnosis
4) For example, 57% of patients with borderline personality disorder also meet diagnostic
criteria for histrionic personality disorder, 55% for schizotypal personality disorder, and
47% for antisocial personality disorder.
5) Is there anything we know about treatment, prevalence, course specific to one diagnosis,
or does it apply to all personality disorders in general?
6) SO…How clinically useful are our current personality disorder diagnoses?
Overlap with other Disorders.
Many of the criteria for personality disorders describe features that are characteristic of other
mental disorder episodes.
IE: suspiciousness, dependency, insensitivity.
Personality disorder diagnosis should be made only when
-the defining characteristics appeared before early adulthood
-the criteria are typical of the individual’s long term functioning
-symptoms do not occur exclusively during an episode of another mental disorder
May be difficult (ant not particularly useful) to distinguish personality disorders from
persistent mental disorders that have an early onset and an enduring, relatively stable course
Some personality disorders may have a spectrum relationship to other mental disorders,
based on genetics, or phenomenological or biological similarities (Schizotypal personality
disorder with schizophrenia, avoidant personality disorder with social anxiety disorder).
Clusters of Personality Disorders on slide
Personality disorders are very difficult to diagnose because its very hard to sort of do a checklist
you sort of just have to get to know someone.
Most of the time personality disorders get diagnosed when they come for treatment for comorbid
disorders.
Cluster A – Odd or Eccentric
Paranoid Perosnlaity Disorders:
12 month prevalence (4%)
A pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others such as that their motives are interpreted as
malevolent, beginning by early adulthood and present in variety of contexts, as indicated by >/ 4
of:
1) Suspects, without sufficient basis, others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving.
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PSY240H1 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Google: trait & social cognitive perspectives of the self. Minnesota multiphasic personality test is most well used. Humanistic psychologists like maslove reject these tests and they try to figure out who the person is and who they would like to be and the idea is the farther apart these two are the more miserable you are. Look at ocean trait personality disorder correlation chart on. Stability state of being unchanged over time. Typically, research finds that our personality are moderately stable (correlation of . 55-. 70) Most constructs in psych have correlations of around (. 30), so numbers like this are quite impressive so the only more consistent thing in psychology than personality is iq (unless you have some sort of brain injury). Personality traits get most stable by age 50 (very few changes in personality after age 50 for the average person).
