In psychology, the main personality traits used to define one’s behavior and thought patterns are called the Big Five. The balance in these traits is considered a sign of order in one’s personality. In contrast, a personality disorder is a state where one’s dominant personality traits lead to social or occupational impairment or other problems with emotions and self-perception (Crego & Widiger, 2020). Therefore, the term personality disorder is directly linked to the concept of the Big 5. For example, one of the traits is extraversion, and both extreme introversion and extreme introversion can present as mental disorders.
An example of such conditions is an antisocial personality disorder, which belongs to Cluster B. This cluster contains emotional, dramatic, and erratic disorders dealing with the perception of oneself and others (Ruben, 2015). For example, a teenage boy may present with a history of violence towards animals and peers, for which he does not seem to feel remorse. Moreover, his parents are worried about his stealing small objects – first from them, then from a store near his school. The boy seems to place the responsibility for his acts on the overbearing attention from his parents, the lack of academic achievements, general dislike of his peers, and other reasons for violent and dangerous behavior. The symptoms of violence, the lack of remorse, guilt transfer, and aggressiveness suggest antisocial personality disorder.
The point in the readings that interested me the most is that the perception of normalcy is fluid. This means that some disorders considered real in previous versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders may not appear in future iterations (Crego & Widiger, 2020). For instance, the discussion surrounding dependent personality disorder is interesting. It demonstrates how difficult it is to pinpoint which behavior can be considered “normal” and which displays maladjustment and requires treatment.
References
Crego, C. & Widiger, T. (2020). Personality disorders. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds.), Noba textbook series: Psychology. DEF.
Ruben, D. H. (2015). Behavioral guide to personality disorders (DSM-5). Charles C Thomas.