PERSONALITY DISORDERS CAUSES |
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Personality disorders are thought to
result from a bad interface, so to speak, between a child's
temperament and character on one hand and his or her family
environment on the other. Temperament can be defined as a person's
innate or biologically shaped basic disposition. Human infants vary
in their sensitivity to light or noise, their level of physical
activity, their adaptability to schedules, and similar traits. Even
traits such as "shyness" and "novelty-seeking" may be, at least in
part, determined by the biology of the brain and the genes one
inherits.
Character is defined as the set of attitudes and behavior patterns
that the individual acquires or learns over time. It includes such
personal qualities as work and study habits, moral convictions,
neatness or cleanliness, and consideration of others. Since children
must learn to adapt to their specific families, they may develop
personality disorders in the course of struggling to survive
psychologically in disturbed or stressful families. For example,
nervous or high-strung parents might be unhappy with a baby who is
very active and try to restrain him or her at every opportunity. The
child might then develop an avoidant personality disorder as the
outcome of coping with constant frustration and parental disapproval.
As another example, child abuse is believed to play a role in
shaping borderline personality disorder. One reason that some
therapists use the term developmental damage instead of personality
disorder is that it takes the presumed source of the person's
problems into account.
Some patients with personality disorders come from families that
appear to be stable and healthy. It has been suggested that these
patients are biologically hypersensitive to normal family stress
levels. Levels of the brain chemical (neurotransmitter) dopamine may
influence a person's level of novelty-seeking, and serotonin levels
may influence aggression. |
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| PERSONALITY DISORDERS RELATED ITEMS |
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