PSY-470 Abnormal Psychology Research Paper Outline

Topic/Proposed Title: Personality disorders

Introduction:                                     

• Hook: Around 10-13% of the universal population has personality disorders.
• Background: There are different types of personality disorders. The most common personality disorders include Borderline personality disorder, Dependent personality disorder, Narcissistic personality disorder and Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

Purpose & Thesis Statement:

• Purpose: To discuss the societal and cultural impact of personality disorders and relate the topic of personality disorders to a model of abnormality.
• Thesis: Personality disorders affect how individuals interact with others in relationships, and the management and treatment of the disorders are affected by the cultural beliefs of the individuals.

1^st Main Point: That Serves to Support Your Thesis: The societal impact of personality disorders entails instability of relationships and vulnerability to stress.

• Lee, R. J., Gozal, D., Coccaro, E. F., & Fanning, J. (2020). Narcissistic and borderline personality disorders: Relationship with oxidative stress.Journal of Personality Disorders,34(Supplement), 6-24.
  • The main idea in the article is how narcissistic and borderline personality disorders affect the incidence of oxidative stress. According to the article, people with personality disorders are hypersensitive and thus prone to oxidative stress (Lee et al., 2020). People living with personality disorders are unable to handle the pressures of relationships.
• South, S. C., Boudreaux, M. J., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2020). The impact of personality disorders on longitudinal change in relationship satisfaction in long-term married couples.Journal of Personality Disorders,34(4), 439-458.
  • This article talks about how personality disorders affect couples who are in a long-term relationship. The article supports that personality disorders cause misunderstands and disagreements in relationships and thus resulting in the instability of relationships (South et al., 2020). According to the article, people with personality disorders tend to derive little or no satisfaction from their relationships and do not understand their spouses.

2^nd Main Point: That Serves to Support Your Thesis: The treatment and management of personality disorders is affected by the cultural beliefs of patients.

• Ronningstam, E. F., Keng, S. L., Ridolfi, M. E., Arbabi, M., & Grenyer, B. F. (2018). Cultural aspects in symptomatology, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders.Current psychiatry reports,20(4), 1-10.
  • The article indicates that some individuals shun away from the treatment of personality disorders because of the stigma and discrimination caused by cultural beliefs (Ronningstam et al., 2018). Some of the cultures will associate the personality disorders with some religious reasons and this affects how accommodating communities are to people living with these disorders.
• Carrotte, E., & Blanchard, M. (2018). Understanding how best to respond to the needs of Australians living with personality disorder.
  • The article indicates that it is important for doctors to understand the beliefs and culture of patients. The article indicates that doctors should respect the beliefs and wishes of patients when it comes to the treatment and management of personality disorders(Carrotte& Blanchard, 2018). According to the article understanding the different beliefs and cultures, and also appreciating them makes individuals to be more interested in pursuing treatment for personality disorders.

3^rd Main Point that Serves to SupportYour Thesis: Personality disorders can be linked to the behavioral model of abnormality.

• Sue, D., Sue, D. W., Sue, D. M., & Sue, S. (2021).Understanding abnormal behavior. Cengage Learning.
  • The book talks about how one can understand abnormal behaviour in individuals. The source indicates that the abnormal behaviour starts slowly and develops gradually, which means that early interventions can help individuals with abnormal behaviors. The behavioral model of abnormality suggests that the behaviors of an individual are because of the environment in which they grow and not their biology (Sue et al., 2021). Individuals who have personality disorders get them due to their life experiences.
• Crocq, M. A. (2022). Milestones in the history of personality disorders.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience.
  • The article talks about how personality disorders are characterized by abnormal behaviours. The individuals who have personality disorders have abnormal behaviours such as aggressiveness, self-harm and being moody, among others (Croq, 2022). Personality disorders could be triggered by significant and traumatic events which an individual goes through. Some of the experiences include bullying, sexual or physical abuse that could make individuals shy, aggressive or moody.

Conclusion:

• Summary of the main points: I will include a summary of the main points discussed in the body.
• Way forward and recommendation for future research: I will recommend future items which should be addressed in future research.