Historical Overview of Personality Disorders

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an historical overview of the classification of personality disorders. The chapter will cover the first through the fifth editions of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual, although emphasis will be given to the more recent editions. Considered in particular are the various components of the proposals for DSM-5, including the deletion of five diagnoses, the inclusion of a psychodynamically-oriented level of personality functioning scale, the replacement of specific and explicit criterion sets first with narrative prototype matching and subsequently with newly developed hybrid criterion sets, and the inclusion of a dimensional trait model. Covered as well will be the World Health Organization’s diagnostic system for the personality disorders, including a dimensional trait model along with a borderline pattern qualifier, which may in fact meet with final approval. Attention will be given in particular to controversies that beset each edition, particularly with respect to complexity and empirical support. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future editions.

The Role of Prototype Matching in Science Pursuits: Perceptions of Scientists That Are Inaccurate and Diverge From Self-Perceptions Predict Reduced Interest in a Science Career

Self-to-prototype matching is a strategy of mental comparisons between the self-concept and the typical or “representative” member of a group to make some judgment. Such a process might contribute to interest in pursuing a science career and, relatedly, women’s underrepresentation in physical science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (pSTEM) fields. Across four studies, we measured self–scientist discrepancies on communal, agentic, and scientific dimensions, and assessed participants’ interest in a science career. The most consistent predictor of science interest was the discrepancy between self and scientist on the scientific dimension (e.g., intelligent, meticulous). Study 4 established that students with larger self–scientist discrepancies also had less accurate perceptions of students pursuing science, and that inaccuracy was related to lower science interest. Thus, students with lower science interest do not just perceive scientists differently from themselves but also erroneously. Discrepancy and inaccuracy together explained a significant portion of the gender gap in pSTEM interest.

Changes in the anaclitic-introjective personality configurations following psychoanalytic psychotherapy with young adults

Treatment goals in psychoanalytic psychotherapy often include changes in underlying psychological structures, rather than only symptom reduction. This study examines changes in the anaclitic-introjective personality configurations following psychoanalytic psychotherapy with young adults in relation to outcomes. Thirty-three patients were interviewed pretreatment and at termination using the Object Relations Inventory (ORI). Prototype Matching of Anaclitic-Introjective Personality Configuration (PMAI) was applied to the ORI material by two independent judges (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.73). The patients were classified pretreatment as predominately anaclitic (n=13) or introjective (n=20). Outcome measures included the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90) and Differentiation-Relatedness scale (D-R) pretreatment, at termination, at the 1.5-year and three-year follow-up. Both groups improved post-treatment in terms of symptoms and developmental levels of representations of self, mother, and father. No significant differences between the anaclitic and the introjective group were found in this respect, and could not be expected due to the low power (0.27). The anaclitic group showed better balance between relatedness and self-definition post-treatment, while this improvement was not significant in the introjective group. Further and larger studies are needed to draw more farreaching conclusions about the relations between changes in personality configurations over the course of treatment and the treatment efficacy. The clinical implications of this approach to underlying dynamic psychological structures are discussed.

Role model and prototype matching: Upper-secondary school students’ meetings with tertiary STEM students

Previous research has found that young people’s prototypes of science students and scientists affect their inclination to choose tertiary STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Consequently, many recruitment initiatives include role models to challenge these prototypes. The present study followed 15 STEM-oriented upper-secondary school students from university-distant backgrounds during and after their participation in an 18-months long university-based recruitment and outreach project involving tertiary STEM students as role models. The analysis focusses on how the students’ meetings with the role models affected their thoughts concerning STEM students and attending university. The regular self-to-prototype matching process was shown in real-life role-models meetings to be extended to a more complex three-way matching process between students’ self-perceptions, prototype images and situation-specific conceptions of role models. Furthermore, the study underlined the positive effect of prolonged role-model contact, the importance of using several role models and that traditional school subjects catered more resistant prototype images than unfamiliar ones did.