PSYC 223 EXAM 4 STUDY GUIDE
Personality Disorders:
1. Know the criteria for the General Personality Disorder.
Criterion A: enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from expectation
from an individual’s culture
● 2 areas (or more of the following):
○ Cognition: ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events
○ Affectivity: the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional
response
○ Interpersonal functioning: narcissist making you feel bad
○ Impulse control (Not across all disorders)
Criterion B: enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive through a range of personal and social
situations
● If the situation calls for it (e.g. angry at work b/c you hate it, not b/c it’s a part of your
personality) then it’s not a disorder
● Personality disorder does not vary from context to context
Criterion C: enduring pattern that leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social
or other important functioning
Criterion D: pattern is stable over long durations and its onset can be traced to at least adolescent
or early childhood
2. Know the three clusters of personality disorder and their defining characteristics.
CLUSTER A: CLUSTER B: Dramatic- CLUSTER C: Anxious-
Odd-Eccentric Emotional Fearful
● Behaviors similar to ● Manipulative and ● Extreme concern of
schizophrenia potentially uncaring criticism and
● Flat affect, odd thoughts/ ● Emotional dysregulation abandonment that leads to
patterns ● Highly erratic emotional impaired relationships
● Differ in their grasp on response
reality ● Inappropriate sexual and
● Not as severe as seductive behavior
schizophrenia
, 3. Know the defining features of Cluster A personality disorders and what differentiates
them from schizophrenia.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
● Looks like Schizophrenia but not the same lump; not a lot known about this
● High prevalence of physical and sexual abuse
● Develop schema: people are not to be trusted/mistrust of others
● Withdrawal from society
● Predominantly environmental
● Schizophrenia presents w/ paranoia too, but it also includes delusions/ hallucinations
Schizoid Personality Disorder
● Looks like Schizophrenia but not the same lump; not a lot known about this
● Flat affect
● No inherent interest in forming close relationships/the social world
● Overall emotionally amiss
● Severe and rare; Biological
● Has more similar/severe effects to schizophrenia
● Schizoids do not experience hallucinations/disconnect from reality that people w/
schizophrenia do
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
● Symptoms of schizophrenia are not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis
● Mild perceptual and cognitive distortions
○ Odd beliefs
○ Unusual perceptual experiences
● Odd/Eccentric behaviors - Odd speech patterns
● Discomfort with and deficits in interpersonal relations - wants close relationships but
often avoids them
● Environmental
● May experience paranoia and unusual behaviors/speech but not hallucinations/delusions
like in schizophrenia
4. Know the defining features of Cluster B disorders and, for each one covered in class,
know the primary characteristics of the disorder and the learning histories that typically
associate with each.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
● Exaggerated emotionality that lacks depth: emotions = shallow and shifts rapidly
● Discomfort when not the center of attention: constant search for approval, reassurance,
praise, etc.
Personality Disorders:
1. Know the criteria for the General Personality Disorder.
Criterion A: enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from expectation
from an individual’s culture
● 2 areas (or more of the following):
○ Cognition: ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events
○ Affectivity: the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional
response
○ Interpersonal functioning: narcissist making you feel bad
○ Impulse control (Not across all disorders)
Criterion B: enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive through a range of personal and social
situations
● If the situation calls for it (e.g. angry at work b/c you hate it, not b/c it’s a part of your
personality) then it’s not a disorder
● Personality disorder does not vary from context to context
Criterion C: enduring pattern that leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social
or other important functioning
Criterion D: pattern is stable over long durations and its onset can be traced to at least adolescent
or early childhood
2. Know the three clusters of personality disorder and their defining characteristics.
CLUSTER A: CLUSTER B: Dramatic- CLUSTER C: Anxious-
Odd-Eccentric Emotional Fearful
● Behaviors similar to ● Manipulative and ● Extreme concern of
schizophrenia potentially uncaring criticism and
● Flat affect, odd thoughts/ ● Emotional dysregulation abandonment that leads to
patterns ● Highly erratic emotional impaired relationships
● Differ in their grasp on response
reality ● Inappropriate sexual and
● Not as severe as seductive behavior
schizophrenia
, 3. Know the defining features of Cluster A personality disorders and what differentiates
them from schizophrenia.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
● Looks like Schizophrenia but not the same lump; not a lot known about this
● High prevalence of physical and sexual abuse
● Develop schema: people are not to be trusted/mistrust of others
● Withdrawal from society
● Predominantly environmental
● Schizophrenia presents w/ paranoia too, but it also includes delusions/ hallucinations
Schizoid Personality Disorder
● Looks like Schizophrenia but not the same lump; not a lot known about this
● Flat affect
● No inherent interest in forming close relationships/the social world
● Overall emotionally amiss
● Severe and rare; Biological
● Has more similar/severe effects to schizophrenia
● Schizoids do not experience hallucinations/disconnect from reality that people w/
schizophrenia do
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
● Symptoms of schizophrenia are not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis
● Mild perceptual and cognitive distortions
○ Odd beliefs
○ Unusual perceptual experiences
● Odd/Eccentric behaviors - Odd speech patterns
● Discomfort with and deficits in interpersonal relations - wants close relationships but
often avoids them
● Environmental
● May experience paranoia and unusual behaviors/speech but not hallucinations/delusions
like in schizophrenia
4. Know the defining features of Cluster B disorders and, for each one covered in class,
know the primary characteristics of the disorder and the learning histories that typically
associate with each.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
● Exaggerated emotionality that lacks depth: emotions = shallow and shifts rapidly
● Discomfort when not the center of attention: constant search for approval, reassurance,
praise, etc.
