Impacts Leading to the Manifestation of Personality Disorders
This is an essay I wrote in November and December of 2022 for a psychology course at my university. Because I care very much about psychology, I am excited to share what I have learned here.
The full title is, “Impacts Leading to the Manifestation of Borderline Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.”
The Issue
This research paper will have a primary focus on the issue of personality disorders that develop in young childhood, and the factors contributing to such development. Personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)—which are both found in the cluster B category—can be detrimental to the overall health and well-being of sufferers and the individuals they interact with. These disorders can be highly maladaptive and atypical. BPD and NPD are of primary focus in this paper. It is unfortunate that disorders such as these develop in children as a result of trauma, neglect, or abuse, but that can not ultimately excuse the harmful actions people with these disorders may bring upon others. NPD is characterized by a high sense of self-importance, grandiosity, loss of touch with reality, the need for narcissistic supply, pathological lying, and a lack of empathy for other human beings. BPD is characterized by low self-esteem, emotional dysregulation, high levels of impulsivity, troubled relationships, and an unstable sense of self (Ronningstam and Gunderson, 1991). Despite all of these unpleasant characteristics, there are efficacious psychological methods that can be implemented for people who face living with these disorders. While their behaviour can never be excused, people with disorders are people, too, and they should not be defined just by their disorder. All human beings have intrinsic value that can never be taken from them.
What Psychology Tells Us
Existing research shows that psychological changes that take place during the period of emerging adulthood have the propensity to indicate increasing maturity (Hopwood et al., 2011). Self-esteem and a sense of one having a decent sense of personal well-being are also strengthened over this time period. Higher-order trait models can help supplement standard dimensions of personality in an integrated hierarchy (Hopwood et al., 2011). The four factors that appear in all structural models of personality involve Negative Emotionality Neuroticism (NEM) Agentic Positive Emotionality or Extraversion (PEM–A), Communal Positive Emotionality or Agreeableness (PEM–C) and Constraint (CON). Neuroticism serves to help humans in the context of environmentally threatening stimuli; Extraversion helps with positive feelings and influencing certain behaviours; Agreeableness helps with making strides in life achievements and ambitions along with developing meaningful social relationships; Constraint (or Conscientiousness) helps orient a human towards self-discipline and reaching goals (Hopwood et al., 2011). These traits, thus, are developing throughout one’s life and influence their personality. The ways that NEM, PEM-A, PEM-C, AND CON develop are generally in accordance with a person as they take on adult roles and responsibilities.
According to Hopwood et al., “The transactional or life-course perspective on personality development suggests that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors play a part in shaping individual dispositions. Indeed, previous genetically-informed studies also point to environmental influences on personality development in adulthood” (2011). From this, it can be hypothesized that the negative implications of suffering from borderline personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder would manifest themselves in highly regressive ways throughout one’s development through childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. Social, genetic, and environmental factors enormously contribute to each person’s development. Various patterns of behaviour can negatively impact components such as interpersonal function, affectivity, relationships, cognition, and impulse control (Wang et al., 2022). According to Wang et al., “Child physical abuse refers to the physical assault of a child from an adult figure and is defined as the intentional use of physical force against a child that typically causes harm to the child, impacting their health, survival, development, or sense of security” (2022).
Childhood maltreatment is a worldwide problem, so much so that it can be considered a concern for public health. This is actually reminiscent of early childhood development covered in this course, Lifespan Development. When children experience certain stressors in their young lives, they can develop trauma that they must carry for the rest of their lives. Parenting styles strongly can influence the onset of trauma from traumatic events, neglect, or abuse.
One specific parenting style that comes to mind is authoritarian. Parents who employ this method are power-driven, highly assertive, communicate to their children and accept little to no feedback in return, and are controlling. The parent has high expectations for the child and has a very cold presence in their child’s life. It is not surprising to see how this could escalate to situations in which a child is physically, emotionally, or mentally abused. Such stressful events can lead to trauma that manifests itself as BPD or NPD later in that child’s life. Children exposed to childhood maltreatment may have a higher susceptibility to developing mood disorders and a higher risk of developing personality disorders. Some other disorders, on top of the two main disorders being analysed in this paper include, autistic disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and histrionic personality disorder. (Wang et al., 2022). Some of these disorders are not in the cluster B category with BPD and BPD. For example, paranoid personality disorder is in the cluster A category; obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is in the cluster C category. This information was obtained through a study conducted in Taiwan and can be generalized to the larger population.
Direct physical injuries caused by neglect and abuse are inexplicably harmful to the long-term development of a young child’s emotional development, cognitive abilities, and general affect. There are also major long-term risk factors for adult psychopathology and physical disorders (Lippard and Nemeroff, 2020). Perhaps this goes without saying, but physical well-being is just as important as mental well-being and ensuring that children grow up in safe environments is the first and most consideration a parent can make the moment their child enters the world. The biological alterations associated with childhood maltreatment include increased inflammatory markers and a higher average body mass index (Lippard and Nemeroff, 2020). To help combat these difficult health issues, anti-inflammatory drugs are a therapeutic method in patients experiencing higher indicators of inflammation as a result of mental illness and the effects of one’s mental state on their physical presentation. Child abuse can also lead to mental illnesses such as generalized anxiety disorder, suicidal ideation, and clinical depression, as seen in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (Lippard and Nemeroff, 2020). Mood disorders, such as bipolar, can result from childhood abuse as the HPA axis in the brain becomes damaged, affecting one’s parasympathetic and endocrine responses to stress. This is especially true involving cases of emotional abuse, where treatments to lower cortisol levels can provide relief.
Implications for Policy and Programs
Seeing as child abuse is a prominent factor that contributes to a severe future lack of well-being for developing humans, programs such as legal reforms and medical interventions can be extraordinarily helpful (Butchart et al., 2006). First and foremost, this will ensure the immediate welfare of children, but it will also help prevent the onset of future personality disorders which serves the future benefit of their adolescent and adult development. In addition, according to Butchart et al., “When service protocols are based only on intuition, anecdotal information or political consideration, without taking into account scientific evidence, services may not only be ineffective but possibly harmful…There is therefore a need for intervention outcome studies of health care, social and legal services responding to childhood maltreatment” (2006). Child Protective Services to step in due to the direct abuse caused to an innocent child. Then, that child would have to either be put in foster care with trained adults or be adopted by safe parents that will have psychological literacy along with the tools to effectively raise that child despite the trauma he or she endured.
Once children grow into adults with narcissistic personality disorder, psychologists may have great difficulty treating those adults (Dimaggio, 2022). Individuals with NPD have much trouble forming relationships with others, they lack empathy and refuse to engage with their weaknesses, so having a clinical relationship with a mental health professional may prove a challenging task. According to Dimaggio, in order for NPD treatment to be successful, there are five important factors to be considered, which include, “Increasing self-reflection, reducing the impact of maladaptive schemas; supporting agency; counteracting maladaptive coping; and promoting theory of mind” (2022). This is a very complex issue with ostensibly remedies the alleviating of the problem of child abuse that may lead to psychological challenges, namely, impacts leading to the manifestation of Borderline Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Annotated Bibliography
Butchart, A., Harvey, A.P., Mian, M., Fürniss, T., Kahane, T., 2006. Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence. World Health Organization and International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/43499/9241594365_eng.pdf?sequence=1
This guide functions for the sole purpose of preventing child maltreatment. Butchart talks about topics such as conceptual definitions of child maltreatment; susceptibility to abuse; individual, communal, and societal factors; outcome evaluations of child maltreatment prevention programmes; and protecting children from such maltreatment. This is, quite literally, just the surface of what is essentially a book dedicated to protecting children from the harm of abusive adults. It is divided into five total chapters.
Hopwood, C. J., Donnellan, M. B., Blonigen, D. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Iacano, W. G., & Burt, S. A. (2011). Gene and Environmental Influences on Personality Trait Stability and Growth During the Transition to Adulthood: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study. APA PsycNet. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2011-01019-001.pdf?auth_token=88b323d2d3fb1e6643d9929be6005b347b95bec6
This study analyzed personality trait changes from adolescents aged 17 to 29 using three waves of Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire data. This period of life is important because adolescents have to grow up and start engaging with the adult world on their own, especially in terms of maturation through basically every facet of their lives. Two examples of what the researchers found were that negative affectivity decreased over time, and that personality traits tend to become more stable during the second half of one’s transition into adulthood.
Dimaggio, G. (2022). Treatment principles for pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 32(4), 408-425. https://doi-org.ezproxy.stthomas.edu/10.1037/int0000263
This article outlines how it is remarkably challenging for psychologists and clinicians to effectively treat NPD. Those diagnosed may be extremely unresponsive to treatment due to their skewed self-perceptions. They may be disengaged and in denial as a response to looking deeply at themselves, and at their deepest vulnerabilities and flaws.
Lippard, E. T. C., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2019, September 20). The Devastating Clinical Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increased Disease Vulnerability and Poor Treatment Response in Mood Disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry. https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010020
This article reviews evidence pointing to the fact that experiencing childhood abuse and neglect can have profoundly negative consequences, not only psychological but medical. The damage maltreatment inflicts on the structure of the brain leaves people very susceptible to illnesses and diseases; the researchers in this study ultimately seek understanding that relates to treatment and prevention.
Ronningstam, E., & Gunderson, J. (1991). Differentiating borderline personality disorder from narcissistic personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 5(3), 225-232. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.1991.5.3.225
This is a study that showed narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder can easily be discriminated against. 24 patients clinically diagnosed with NPD and 20 patients with BPD completed the DIN to assess 33 characteristics imputed to pathological narcissism. Grandiosity is a primary trait seen in NPD and distinguishes it from BPD.
Wang, W., Hung, H., Chung, C., Hsu, J., Huang, K., Chan, Y., Chien, W., & Chen, M. (2022). Risk of personality disorders among childhood maltreatment victims: A nation-wide population-based study in Taiwan. Journal of Affective Disorders, 305, 28-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.12.109
This study has essentially revealed that childhood maltreatment is correlated to a higher risk of developing personality disorders; the researchers sought to understand whether or not such a childhood environment should be with the incidence of personality disorders.
—Research Essay by Samantha Fuchsgruber
Date // 07. December 2022
@LockheartArdenPublishing
