Surely you have heard phrases similar to: “he has been diagnosed with personality disorder x”, “I like him and he has a lot of personality”, and the one who takes the cake: “he has no personality” (we all have personalities and also , is unique and unrepeatable, enough with these phrases). It would be impossible to summarize the topic of personality and its disorders in a few pages. What I would like to do is help you have a broader, scientific and at the same time simple perspective on personality; What are the factors that determine it, some theories and models, its disorders and current treatments.
Personality
As you have seen in the introduction, the term “personality” is often used in an erroneous way. In psychology, when we talk about personality we refer to a set of deeply incorporated thoughts, feelings and behaviors, which persist over time and make us unique and unrepeatable. People tend to respond in a similar way when faced with certain situations. However, our behavior is not determined solely by personality. Learning, the environment or emotional states condition us when it comes to acting at certain moments.
Although personality can, to a certain extent, predict or determine how we will behave in different situations, we cannot claim 100% accuracy. The complexity of the human being and the immense number of factors that intervene in our way of acting make it impossible to identify a single predictor of behavior.
Determinants of personality
There are several factors that are determining factors in our personality, such as: heredity, affection, nutrition, physical health, neuropsychological development, environment and learning.
According to , an English psychologist who dedicated his life to the study of personality, the personality structure has three “dimensions”: character, temperament (which are often confused) and intelligence.
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We refer to a deeply embedded set of thoughts, feelings and behaviors
When we talk about character we are referring to those characteristics in which the influence of the environment has a greater weight, that is, learning. It is acquired, linked to educational and cultural factors. Without it it would be impossible for us to internalize social norms and our voluntary adjustment. You can educate him, of course with personal work.
Regarding temperament, it is the biological basis of character, it is given to us, it is our affective behavior (largely the result of the sum of chemical processes in the brain). .
And, finally, intelligence, which refers to our cognitive behavior, made up of some variables such as attention, observation capacity, memory, learning and socialization skills.
When we talk about personality development we must take into consideration two concepts: genotype and phenotype. The first refers to the potentialities that we have due to our biological constitution, that is, what we could or should be and is determined by heredity and neuropsychological development. The second refers to the behavioral manifestation of our personality, that is, what we do and how we show it, and is determined by the genotype and the learning processes throughout our life. Both play a fundamental role in the development of our personality.
In conclusion, we are born with certain characteristics of our own, which over time and with a set of factors such as environmental origin, culture, family, education received, etc., develop and define, structure and change with certainty. the passing of the years. Parental figures, friends, and teachers intervene significantly in this process, exerting great influence.
Traits and types
As we have seen, our behavior is, in a certain way, consistent over time, so we could conceive of traits as groupings of specific behaviors that occur habitually.
A personality trait contains the characteristics of stability and durability and in this it differs from a state, which is a specific situation, with a beginning and an end. For example, it is very different for us to be nervous because we are taking an exam tomorrow, we have had a lot of coffee or we have argued, than for us to be nervous.
It is very important to keep this in mind, to be specific, in fact many therapies work on this differentiation. How many times have you heard people call you apathetic, angry, nervous, antisocial, life of the party… depending on a specific situation. Why is it annoying?
People are similar or different not based on our states, but depending on our traits. There is an immense, immense amount (egocentrism, impulsiveness, anxious, dominant, emotional…). traits.
As you will understand, the work of psychologists would be impossible and that is why types or dimensions are established from the modern point of view of personality theories. The traits are not independent, in reality they are related to each other to a greater or lesser extent and this relationship can be quantified using a statistical index called correlation. This type of relationship between traits makes it possible to group them into higher entities called types or dimensions. Thus, for example, we have types such as extraversion, which would encompass traits of sociability, vitality, activity, dominance, search for emotions, etc. It is important not to conceive these types in a dichotomous way (extraversion-intraversion) but rather in a continuum or degree, depending on the extent to which we possess the different traits that constitute that specific type.
Before moving on to the theories and models, I would like you to take a look at one about the use of our data (age, interests, likes, etc.) that helps important companies (specifically Facebook) to be important, largely thanks to the profile that is formed of us and how it influences our behavior. Is awesome.
Theories and models of personality
The study of personality was not formalized, as a branch of psychology, until the end of the 1930s. And, between the 1930s and the 1970s, the great clinical theories of personality were formulated, such as factorial or multi-trait (Allport, Guilford, Cattell, Eysenck, Big Five Model), or bio-typological (Pavlov, Strelau, Gray), in addition to those based on more behavioral assumptions (Skinner, Dollard and Miller), or in the first contributions of social learning (Rotter, Bandura, Mischel).
If you want to delve deeper into these theories and their authors, I recommend that you visit the . There you will find both the exhaustive biography of the main authors, as well as their contributions.
Since the end of the 20th century and throughout the first decade of the 21st, it is worth highlighting the role acquired by sociocognitive conceptions, which present us with the understanding of personality as a complex system made up of interrelated subsystems of cognitive and affective elements, where The person is proactive and not reactive, having choice and creation of situations as well as intentionality on their path towards the goals and objectives they propose.
Well, the different theories formulated to describe and explain personality can be organized around three theoretical models: internalist, situationist and interactionist, which differ in the answer they give to the question about the determinants of individual behavior.
The internalist model understands that our behavior is fundamentally determined by personal factors. The situationist model understands that our behavior is mainly determined by the characteristics of the environment or situation in which it takes place. The interactionist model brings together the two previous positions, pointing out that our behavior is determined, in part, by our personal characteristics, in part, by situational parameters, and fundamentally, by the interaction between both sets of determinants.
Personality disorders
Personality disorder is considered different from a clinical disorder because it persists throughout adult life, while a clinical disorder has an onset and progression over time.
Although the subject of intense debate, all current classifications of personality disorders require: 1) that the onset of the disorder be in childhood or adolescence (early onset); 2) that there is persistence of the behavior over time and in almost all situations (stability and consistency); and 3) that causes personal suffering, problems at work, or difficulties in family or social relationships.
Like mental health problems, personality disorders are likely the result of the interaction of multiple environmental and genetic factors. There is increasing evidence that there is a genetic component. There are studies that indicate the inheritance of personality traits and personality disorders, ranging from 30% to 50%. And family and childhood experiences are important, including having experienced abuse (emotional, physical and sexual), abandonment and harassment (you can see the entire article and its references).
Personality disorder is considered different from a clinical disorder because it persists throughout adult life
Various studies were examined that analyze the influence of environmental events on gene regulation mechanisms, with particular attention to the consequences of this interaction on the formation of the nervous system, personality traits and personality alterations. I recommend you to read it.
Regarding the current classification, the recently published fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-V) has not modified the previous classification by categories, although it is a more complex alternative. Emphasizes personality traits and a dimensional concept. The magazine “Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría” studies in depth the reformulation of personality disorders in the DSM-V in the following.
It should be noted that the traits that describe each of the personality disorders can also be found in “healthy” people, for example, the fact that obsessive-compulsive personality disorder implies, among other characteristics, great conscientiousness. It means that everyone who has this trait should receive the diagnosis.
10 diagnoses can be distinguished that can be grouped into three categories (clusters), which I will try to summarize below.
Group A (rare or eccentric disorders)
This group is characterized by a pervasive pattern of cognition (e.g. suspicion), expression (e.g….