Understanding Personality Disorders and Behavioral Traits
Ableism
: discrimination in favour of able-bodied people.
Ageism
: discrimination against persons of a certain age group.
Agreeableness
: the tendency to act in a cooperative, unselfish manner, construed as one end of a dimension of individual differences.
Ambiversion/Ambivert
: a state intermediate between extroversion and introversion/ a state intermediate between extroversion and introversion.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
: is a particularly challenging type of personality disorder characterized by impulsive, irresponsible and often criminal behaviour.
Avoidant Personality Disorder
: people with avoidant personality disorder have chronic feelings of inadequacy and are highly sensitive to being negatively judged by others.
Borderline Personality Disorder
: a mental illness that severely impacts a person’s ability to manage their emotions.
Boundaries
: a line which marks the limits of an area; a dividing line.
The Caseworker Governance Model
: governance emphasizing social workers’ role in decision-making and policy administration for social services
Dwelling-based Governance Model
: governance centered around housing units, involving active resident participation in decision-making.
Uncoordinated Governance Model
: governance lacking effective coordination among different governmental entities or actors.
User-coordinated Governance Model
: governance involving active user participation in decision-making and policy formulation for public services.
Choleric
: bad-tempered or irritable.
A Cohort Study
: A research study that compares a particular outcome (such as lung cancer) in groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic.
Conscientiousness
: the quality of wishing to do one’s work or duty well and thoroughly.
A Cross-sectional Study
: A type of research study in which a group of people is observed, or certain information is collected, at a single point in time or over a short period of time.
Dependent Personality Disorder
: is a type of anxious personality disorder. People with DPD often feel helpless, submissive or incapable of taking care of themselves.
Epigenetics
: the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.
Extraversion/Extravert
(“extroversion” and “extrovert” are also possible): a personality trait or style characterized by a preference for or orientation to engaging socially with others.
A Field Study
: collecting data outside of an experimental or lab setting.
Findings
: information discovered as the result of an inquiry or investigation.
Genetic Expression
: the process by which the information encoded in a gene is turned into a function.
Hikikomori
: the extreme avoidance of social contact.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
: a type of psychiatric disorder that features attention-seeking behaviours, seductive behaviour and emotional over-reaction.
Introversion/Introvert
: a personality trait characterized by being shy and quiet, they prefer to spend time alone rather than with people.
A Longitudinal Study
: researchers repeatedly examine the same individuals to detect any changes that might occur over a period of time.
Melancholic
: feeling or expressing pensivesadness.
Narcissism
: excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
: a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance.
Nurture (vs. Nature)
: “Nature” means innate biological factors (namely genetics), while “nurture” can refer to upbringing or life experience more generally.
Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder
: a mental health condition that causes an extensive preoccupation with perfectionism, organization, and control.
Openness to Experience
: a dimension of cognitive style that distinguishes imaginative, creative people from down-to-earth, conventional people.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
: a mental condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of distrust and suspicion of others.
Prevalent
: widespread in a particular area or at a particular time.
Phlegmatic
: (of a person) having an unemotional and stolidly calm disposition.
Sanguine
: optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
: a mental health condition marked by a consistent pattern of detachment from and general disinterest in social relationships.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
: is a mental health condition marked by a consistent pattern of intense discomfort with relationships and social interactions.
Startle Response
: a complicated involuntary reaction to a sudden unexpected stimulus (especially a loud noise); involves flexion of most skeletal muscles and a variety of visceral reactions.