Personality Disorders

From a psychological point of view, the term personality disorder refers to the continued change in the behavior of a person through change in attitude and personal feelings. Individuals exhibit personality disorders due to changes in circumstances that do surround them. Psychologists and scientists have carried out researches on what causes individuals to develop personality disorders (Lavender et al., 6). The environment that individuals live in mostly affects their reactions to change and other people's opinions. The inability to understand oneself is what can be termed as a personality disorder from the layman's language.

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The personality of an individual does not change easily, and that is why an individual can be termed as shy or naive. Therefore, when it is difficult to distinguish the exact personality of an individual, then there must be a problem with the person. That means that his pattern of behavior and his feelings, as well as his thoughts, have changed rapidly. So the question is what causes an individual to develop personality disorders? To start off, an individual develops personality disorders when he or she becomes egocentric (Lavender et al., 8). This means that the beliefs of the individual together with his attitudes differ from that of other individuals.

With time, the individuals that are close to those suffering from personality disorders begin to pull away from their association, thus, leaving them alone. The main reason why they do that is that they find the new behavior unexpected and unusual to cope with. It becomes an issue to spend time with individuals that exhibit personality disorders. Individuals with personality disorders find life becoming rather chaotic as their feelings become unpredictable (Lavender et al., 9). Many patients that suffer from these disorders seek medical attention at hospitals, and their number keeps increasing every day. The kind of lifestyle that people live can also be a prime reason for the cause of personality disorders.

Personality disorders appear during early adulthood and in adolescence. Teenagers are the most affected by personality disorders due to a shift in the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is clear that personality disorders are not affected by a life event or a traumatizing event but rather a sudden occurrence and change in the behavior of the person. These personality disorders make an individual's relationship with others quite difficult. Hence, the individual loses a lot of friendships (Lavender et al., 12). At times, the feeling of alienation and loneliness usually becomes part of the individual that is diagnosed with a personality disorder. Despite all these, an individual can seek help from therapy sessions and get to fight the disorder.

According to research done by many scientists, it is evident that many personality traits that have been identified in people with personality disorders are inherited as well as determined biologically (Kandler, 81). These studies have been possible through the development of the technology of neuroscience. Precisely, both Schizotypal and Borderline personality disorders are commonly associated with genetic factors. Therefore, biologically, an individual with aggressive impulsiveness is said to have inherited the traits from one of his or her family members that has Borderline personality disorder. On the other hand, individuals that are schizophrenic share a common genetic origin with their family members; one of the family members must have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Individuals with different behavioral tendencies that are associated with personality disorders have been traced by researchers to the brain chemistry as well as anatomy. This proves that the genetics play an important role in defining the causes and origin of the personality disorders observed in human beings today. As aforementioned, the Schizotypal Personality Disorder is associated with some abnormalities in the individuals suffering from it. The affected region of the brain is termed as the temporal cortex (Kandler, 81). The abnormalities are said to be very similar to those that are recorder in human beings with schizophrenia. However, the most fortunate aspect in individuals diagnosed with this type of disorder is the fact that they are protected by the superior functioning of the other parts of the brain. They are protected against developing more psychotic features that are debilitating. Therefore, they are prevented from developing Schizophrenia because the debilitating psychotic features of hallucinating and delusions are observed in people with Schizophrenia.

Another stance in which one can seek to have an understanding of the role of genetics in personality disorders is the fact that neurological studies have provided evidence that is indisputable regarding impulsive aggression. Primarily, the intervention sought by individuals with impulsive aggression is based on pharmacology. This revolves around the relationship between impulsive aggression and the serotonergic system that is a complex neurochemical system (Kandler, 82). In reference to the studies that have already been conducted, individuals with antisocial, borderline, histrionic as well as narcissistic personality disorder have a problem with the functioning of the prefrontal cortices of the brain. The prefrontal cortices of a human beings brain are associated with making the right and decisive judgments or choices. However, persons suffering from these personality disorders that are categorized under Cluster B Personality disorders have a difficult in making the wisest choices (Kandler, 82). They are not in charge of their emotional control and therefore, might not make rational decisions when tempered.

In conclusion, neurological studies have proven that personality disorders are traced back to biological factors as one of their causes. When children are born, they happen to possess primitive traits. These traits are said to be the cause of children not making logical and rational decisions, but as they grow, the brain also grows and develops. This development helps in the specialization of the overall functioning of the brain. However, when the brain has some abnormalities, it is believed that the individual develops a personality disorder. Therefore, this backs up the fact that genetics is vital in the development of personality disorders.

Works Cited

Kandler, Christian. "Personality Development Between Nature And Nurture." Personality and Individual Differences 60 (2014): S81-S82. Web.

Lavender, J. M. et al. "Development And Validation Of A State-Based Measure Of Emotion Dysregulation: The State Difficulties In Emotion Regulation Scale (S-DERS)". Assessment (2015): n. pag. Web.