Different Types Of Personality Disorders

 Personality disorders are characterized by a pervasive and impairing pattern of problems and issues regarding self-identity and interpersonal relationships. There are different types of personality disorders that can affect different people and they are divided into different sub-types. Psychologists say that the personality disorders are divided into different clusters and that different clusters are grouped together based on some common occurrence or trait that the personality disorders that fall under these clusters have.

different types of personality disorders

Different types of personality disorders:

The three clusters of the different types of personality disorders are divided into A, B, and C with cluster A encompassing all the personality disorders where individuals are appearing to be odd or eccentric, cluster B includes emotional and dramatic individuals and cluster C is composed of people that appear to be skittish and anxious.

1. Cluster A: odd/eccentric

• Schizotypal Personality Disorder: People with schizotypal personality disorder often experience discomfort in interpersonal relationships; they often go through similar thoughts and experiences that appear in schizophrenia, like beliefs that may seem weird. These people are very suspicious of others and the environment and are actually scared of different situations that involve socialization. People who suffer from this disorder are fearful of others.
• Paranoid Personality Disorder: This disorder involves a lot of suspiciousness and distrust for other people, no matter whether you know them or not. People with this disorder are distrustful of their loved ones, friends and families. These people are always trying to see whether their suspicions have merit, but they are also very sensitive to feelings of embarrassment and humiliation and are very prone to being upset with somebody for a very long time no matter how trivial the cause of them being upset in the first place was. Of course, coming from this explanation, one can understand how it could be difficult to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships if you are always very suspicious and distrustful of actions that other people are doing, so these people often isolate themselves from others.
• Schizoid Personality Disorder: People diagnosed with this disorder often withdraw themselves from interpersonal relationships; they are detached, indifferent. People with schizoid personality disorder really do not want or wish for social relationships. They do not have any interest in friendships or sexual relationships and they often do not have any idea about social norms and have suppressed emotional reactions to the outside world.

2. Cluster B: emotional/dramatic

• Histrionic Personality Disorder: people with this disorder are often referred to as actors, they have excessive emotionality and they like to be in the center of attention and they do not handle it well when they’re not approved by others. They often behave in a way that can seem very seductive and charming, and they never want to feel bored, and, therefore, often end up in dangerous situations. They cannot handle criticism well but their pattern of behavior makes it difficult for them to develop and maintain good relationships, especially romantic ones. They feel worthless a lot and if they do that, they try to get even more attention and then they get rejected again.
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder: people feel very grandiose about themselves and feel that they need to be admired and their need overcomes the needs of everyone else. People with this disorder get jealous a lot and they think that others are as jealous of them as well. There is a big lack of empathy in this disorder and people are ready to get to their desired goals through any means possible. They do not handle embarrassment or humiliation very well, resulting in them being very angry and seeking revenge.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder: a very big symptom for antisocial personality disorder is callousness and lack of empathy. These people don’t really care for the feelings of others and do not follow social rules. They get angry quite easily and are impulsive. They can be superficially nice and charming and actually do develop relationships quite well but aren’t able to maintain them for too long. A lot of times ASPD is correlated with criminal behavior, as history and evidence shows a lot of those diagnosed with ASPD have had a criminal record and have a history of criminal activities.
• Borderline Personality Disorder: this disorder is characterized by severe fear of abandonment, problems with the sense of self, feelings of emptiness and intense and unstable relationships that perceive over and over again. People diagnosed with BPD often threat to engage in harmful behavior.

3. Cluster C: fearful/anxious

• Dependent Personality Disorder: people who are diagnosed with Dependent PD often do not have a lot of self-confidence and they need assistance in their everyday functioning. People with this disorder, same as with BPD, are also scared of abandonment a lot and go through a pattern of problems in interpersonal relationships. People with Dependent PD often give the responsibility of taking care of themselves to someone else who they regard as their protector.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: should not be confused with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) because OCD talks about behaviors (compulsions) and OCPD is actually a type of personality. People with this disorder tend to have everything under control and they are really hard on themselves regarding achievements and do not like to make mistakes.
• Avoidant Personality Disorder: often times also called anxious personality disorder. People diagnosed with this are more likely to not come to activities that are related to work or socialization because they do not like being around other people. They experience a lot of distress due to the fact that they are sensitive to being disapproved and criticized for themselves and what they do; they are scared of being rejected, humiliated and embarrassed by others and, therefore, to avoid those negative feelings they do not engage themselves in meaningful relationships. They often feel very lonely and aren’t willing to try new things because they’re scared they’re going to embarrass themselves.

different types of personality disorders

Valerie Sidelkivska

Valerie is a psychology student who is trying to pursue a career in Cognitive Neuroscience. She is passionate about the brain and finds it fascinating. She loves learning about new discoveries and research that is going on in the world of psychology and neuroscience. One day she hopes to contribute to the scientific community!