disorder in the life course: how common and does it matter

What is the greatest challenge for a lifespan perspective on personality disorder?

Possibly the greatest scientific and clinical challenge for a lifespan perspective on personality disorder is the need to adopt a classification system that is both clinically useful and scientifically robust. From a scientific viewpoint, such a system will need to show the dimensional nature of the traits that underlie both adaptive and maladaptive personality, and the changing nature of personality across the lifespan. At the same time, scientific research findings need to be translated into clinically useful formats that take a lifespan perspective to enable consideration of personality disorder at all ages. Recognition of personality disorder in childhood and adolescence will enable prevention, earlier detection, and implementation of evidence-based interventions aimed at changing the life-course trajectory of personality disorder.

Where does personality disorder start?

Personality disorder begins in childhood and adolescence. Experts generally agree that personality disorder has its roots in childhood and adolescence, and this view was made explicit in the operational definitions of the categorical personality disorders that were introduced in DSM-III. 22. APA.

What is rethinking personality disorder?

Rethinking personality disorder. People with personality disorder have difficulty interpreting the world, themselves, and the people around them. This condition manifests as problems with cognition, emotions, and behaviour, which often affect the ability to form interpersonal relationships.

What is the focus of developmental studies of personality disorder?

Crossref. Scopus (98) Google Scholar. Until the late 1990s, most so-called developmental studies of personality disorder focused on early childhood experiences and how they affect later (adult) psychopathology. Such childhood effects are important, but they might be mediated and even reversed by later experiences.

How does personality develop from birth to adulthood?

That personality develops from birth to adulthood seems obvious: individual differences in personality traits are recognised from birth and these differences are understood to arise from genetic endowment, changing with maturation and environmental factors until adulthood. What is not so obvious is the continuous change and development that occurs with experience across the entire life course in both the healthy and pathological ranges, as inherited characteristics interact with environmental factors.

Is personality disorder a pervasive disorder?

Summary. The perva sive effect of personality disorder is often overlooked in clinical practice, both as an important moderator of mental state and physical disorders, and as a disorder that should be recog nised and managed in its own right.

Is maladaptive personality a symptom of clinical distress?

Contemporary research has shown that maladaptive personality (when personality traits are extreme and associated with clinical distress or psychosocial impairment) is common, can be recognised early in life, evolves continuously across the lifespan, and is more plastic than previously believed.

Abstract

This chapter examines mental health and mental illness from a life-course perspective. Of necessity, discussion will focus more on the potential of life-course perspectives to inform us about the antecedents and consequences of mental health than about its demonstrated utility.

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What is the life course perspective?

The life course perspective, an emerging interdisciplinary perspective, has potential for helping social workers bridge their micro and macro worlds. This article provides an overview of the empirical and theoretical roots of the life course perspective and its basic concepts and major themes. Five basic concepts are defined and discussed: cohorts, transitions, trajectories, life events, and turning points. Six major themes that are emerging from interdisciplinary research are examined: interplay of human lives and historical time, timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, human agency in making choices, diversity in life course trajectories, and developmental risk and protection. Strengths and limitations of the perspective for use by social workers are discussed and connections are made to narrative approaches to practice.

What are the themes of interdisciplinary research?

Six major themes that are emerging from interdisciplinary research are examined: interplay of human lives and historical time, timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, human agency in making choices, diversity in life course trajectories, and developmental risk and protection.