essay 4

Antisocial personality disorder is a personality disorder marked by a general pattern of disregard for a violation of other people’s rights. Explanations of antisocial personality disorder come from the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and biological models. As with many other personality disorders, psychodynamic theorists propose that this disorder starts with an absence of parental love during infancy leading to a lack of basic trust. In this view, the children that develop this disorder respond to early inadequacies by becoming emotionally distant, and they bond with others through use of power and destructiveness. Behavioral theorists have suggested that antisocial symptoms may be learned through modeling, or imitation. As evidence, they point to the higher rate of antisocial personality disorder found among the parents of people with this disorder. Other behaviorists suggest that some parent’s unintentionally teach antisocial behavior by regularly awarding a child’s aggressive behavior. The cognitive view says that people with this disorder hold attitudes that trivialize the importance of other people’s needs. Cognitive theorists also believe that these people have a genuine difficulty recognizing a point of view other than their own. Finally studies show that biological factors may play an important role in developing antisocial disorder. Researchers have found that antisocial people, particularly those with high impulse and aggression, display lower serotonin activity and has been linked this same activity with other studies as well.

Borderline Personality Disorder is another type of personality disorder characterized by repeated instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and mood and by impulsive behavior...

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...the borderline client’s dependency and anger and challenging his or her on way of thinking. The wild attitudes of these clients can also make it difficult for therapists to establish productive working relationships. Over the past two decades, theorists have begun to use a treatment called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). It has gained growing research and support and now considered the treatment of choice. DBT includes behavioral and cognitive techniques that are applied to other disorders reinforcing appropriate behaviors and social skills. Finally, antianxiety, antipsychotic, antidepressants and mood stabilizers have helped calm the emotional and aggressive actions of some people with borderline personality disorder. Many clinicians believe that a combination of psychotropic drug treatment and psychotherapy is more successful than with therapy or drugs alone.