Abnormal Psychology: Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are a type of behaviour which is not effective in coping with the challenges of life, and may very often be self defeating.

Personality disorders can be hard to diagnose initially, because they do not obviously stick out as a mental disorder.

For example, an individual may not be suffering from anxiety or depression, or be psychotic, so to the average person they may appear normal.

The three main types of personality disorders are:

1 - Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A narcissistic personality disorder occurs when a person is in love with themselves. They think they are better than everyone else, and as a result tend to display a lack of compassion towards other people.

2 - Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder describes a person who can knowingly harm or cheat others, without feeling guilty for their actions.

They may appear to be very nice and friendly, but this is only done to benefit themselves (i.e. trick you into giving something to them).

3 - Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder want everything to be perfect, and have total control over their environment.

Note : This type of disorder differs from obsessive-compulsive disorder, because it is a personality disorder not an anxiety disorder.

A person with obsessive-compulsive (anxiety) disorder does things repeatedly to reduce the anxiety caused by their thoughts.

Summary

• Personality disorders are self defeating behaviours which make it hard for someone to live a normal and productive life.

• Narcissistic personality disorder is a person who thinks very highly of themselves, and lowly of others.

• Antisocial personality disorder is a person who can harm others and not feel guilty for doing it.

• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder describes people who want absolute control over everything, and want it to be perfect.