Abnormal Personality Traits

Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Underlying Normal Traits within Abnormal Personality Disorders

Student

University

April 11, 2010

Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Abstract

Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality traits

underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities. The

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition is the determinative

guide on the descriptions of these personality characteristics, and it determined that there were

several models to be considered when looking for a universal clinical definition of abnormal

personality.
A person’s maladaptiveness and

evolutionary sense were added as part of the definition of whether the personality was normal or

abnormal, and whether a person had the skill to be able to manage personal relationships were

considered as well in the general definition of abnormal personality. Today, treatment options

are expanded from the traditional therapy treatments to include drug therapies, psychodynamic

therapy, day hospital intervention, and dialectical behavior therapy. To date, day hospital

interventions have proved very successful on non-schizophrenic patients suffering from

abnormal personality traits.

Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Introduction

Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality

traits underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities.

Recently, scholars have begun to make an argument that current category systems of personality

disorders (PDs) should be substituted by trait dimensional scheme designations in the
259). In other words, there was no concrete evidence that the researchers would

consistently find traits that were exclusively common or descriptive of a specific personality

disorder.

In fact, personality disorders were measured across normal and control groups. The

findings were that there were similarities within the disorder traits and that some equaled normal

and others disordered personality traits. In this way, the researchers queried whether disorder

traits could be seen in normal personalities. The answer was that there were few solid

frameworks to make the decision which would provide a definitive answer to the question. In

effect, extreme ends of the traits seemed to be deemed disorders, while extreme variations alone

may not have been considered enough to state that a personality disorder actually existed.

Quantitative Differences in Normal and Abnormal Personalities

Quantitative differences exist between the normal and abnormal personality.