1. Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are characterized by:
inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning.
usually without depression or delusions.
Preview Question 13: What characteristics are typical of personality disorders?
Robert Lee Yates:
Spokane Skid Row Killer

2. Personality Disorders
Broken down into Clusters:
Cluster A: Paranoid and Schizoid
Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, and Narcissistic
Cluster C: Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive
Ted Bundy:
Confessed to 30 homicides, including a girl from University of Washington

3. Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal
People with these illnesses from this group of disorders exhibit:
Odd or eccentric behavior
Paranoid with deep distrust of others
Extreme lack of interpersonal relationships
Strange belief systems and attribute unusual meanings to life events and experience.
With this disorder, they do not have a break from reality.

4. Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic
This group of disorders demonstrate dramatic or impulsive behavior.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)is the most public because all serial killers have this disorder (but not everyone with this disorder are serial killers).
A disorder in which the person (usually men) exhibits guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit.
The terms psychopath (remorseless predators who engage in violence to get what they want) and sociopath (less organized, not as good with social norms or behaviors)are part of this group. These used to be considered merely legal terms, but the psychology world has adopted the use of them as a subcategory.
Jeffrey Dahmer:
Killed and cannibalized men

5. Antisocial Personality Disorder Characteristics
Failure to conform to social norms or obey the law
Manipulating, lying, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
Impulsivity
Irritability and aggressiveness, getting into physical fights or perpetrating assaults
Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others
Consistent irresponsibility, inconsistent work behavior, not paying bills
Lack of remorse, showing indifference to the pain of others, or rationalizing, having hurt or mistreated others.
Extremely ego-centric

6. Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder
ASPD has biological and psychological reasons.
In a longitudinal study, two groups of Swedish 13-year-olds (non-offenders at the time) were tested for adrenaline reactions in both stressful and non-stressful situations.
Those who would later be convicted on a crime as 18- to 26- year olds showed relatively low arousal.
Jon Venables: at age 10, beat a 2-year-old to death

7. Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder
PET scans of 41 murderers revealed reduced activity in the frontal lobes. In a follow-up study, repeat offenders had 11% less frontal lobe activity (Raine et al., 1999; 2000).
They also found that poverty and family instability played a role in triggering ASPD. Nature and nurture interact and together leave their marks on the brain.
Courtesy of Adrian Raine,
University of Southern California
Normal
Murderer

8. More Disorders from Cluster B
Borderline- Emotionally volatile and unstable sense of self. Prone to mood swings, excessive self-criticism, extreme judgments of others, and preoccupied with being abandoned.
Histrionic- Attention-seeking, dramatic, lively, and flirtatious. Inappropriately seductive in their interactions with others
Narcissistic- Self-aggrandizing yet overly dependent on the evaluations of others. View themselves as entitled and better than others. Show deficits in empathy and in understanding the feelings of others.

9. Cluster C: Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive Compulsive
This group of disorders are anxiety-related.
Avoidant: inhibited and prone to feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and shame. Usually avoid taking any social risks, and often separated themselves.
Dependent: depends on others for emotional and physical needs.
Obsessive-Compulsive: preoccupation of perfection; demands it from everyone.