Unit 5 Psych: Individuals Temperamental, Behavioral, Mental, And Emotional Characteristics (Research Paper Sample)

Unit 5 Psych F
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Part 1
Personality
Personality may be identified as an intermingling of an individual’s temperamental, behavioral, mental, and emotional characteristics. According to Freud’s theory, there are five developmental stages. He posited that few individuals successfully complete the five stages. These five stages are Oral stage; birth to approximately 15 months, anal stage; 15 months to roughly 3 years; Phallic stage, 3 years to roughly 5 years; Latency stage, approximately five years unto puberty; Genital stage, from puberty onwards (Frank, 2009).
Oral Stage
A newborn child is principally governed simply by its drives. Consequently the infant searches for instantaneous gratification. The infant has the id which is the principal element in human personality.
Anal Stage
The gratification focal point at this stage shifts to the anus from the mouth. The child draws contentment from the removal of faeces. This results in conflict between the infant and its parents. Solving this conflict necessitates ego development, and by itself has imperative implications for behavior in later stages in life.
Phallic Stage
The gratification focal point at this stage shifts to the genitals, even though this pleasure is not identical to the one experienced in adulthood. The major conflict experienced in this stage is referred to as the Oedipal/Electra conflict. In resolving this conflict, the child demonstrates attachment to the same sex parent as well as superego development.
Latency Stage
The drives of gratification in the preceding stages seem moderately inactive. This is partially as a result of the subjugation of sexual drives that is consummated in the oedipal stage. Freud alleges that the subdued drives would be channeled to other activities, like hobbies, or formation of acquaintances.
Genital Stage
In puberty there is recurrence of the previous drives. Drive energy’s focal point is the genitals again, with a fully developed sexuality expression. Thus, it leads to formation of loving relationships or taking on the responsibilities of adulthood. If the individual is preoccupied with excessive libidinal energy in the initial three stages, the person cannot attain maturity, or shift the focal point from their bodies, their parents or their pressing needs to broader responsibilities that would involve other people (Frank, 2009).
Part 2
Personality Disorders
Personality disorders refer to mental sicknesses that share some unique characteristics.  They comprise long-term symptoms that play a fundamental role in the majority, if not all, facets of the individual’s life. While several disorders fluctuate in relation to the presence as well as intensity of symptoms, personality disorders characteristically remain comparatively constant. This part of the paper will focus on the Borderline personality disorder (BPD) (Winograd, 2008).
BPD affects approximately 1% of the general populace. Environmental and Genetic factors have demonstrated as being involved in its development. BPD causes the majority of its problems in early years of adulthood, a time in which the majority of individuals in western societies are full of life laying the groundwork for their future life. Approximately 8% of BPD patients perish by means of suicide. BPD bears considerable pressure on mental health-care facilities as well as societal costs. The foundation of treatment in BPD is psychotherapy, though psychiatric medication could also be indicated. In recent times, it has been demonstrated that BPD turns less symptomatic ion the course of time. A follow-up survey by Paris (2005) discovered that by forty years of age 75% of the persons suffering from BPD recuperate nearly regular functioning, while by fifty years of age 90% they grow healthier (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). BPD is signified by the symptoms below:
Affective Symptoms
* Improper, intense anger or trouble controlling irritation, for instance, recurrent display of temper, regular anger, and recurring physical fights.
* Affective volatility as a result of a manifest reactivity of mood, for instance, extreme episodic dysphoria, anxiety or irritability generally lasting for a few hours and seldom more than a couple of days.
* Severe thoughts of worthlessness.
Impulsive Symptoms
* Impulsivity in no less than two areas that are possibly self-damaging, for instance, substance abuse, expenditure, sex, reckless driving, and spree eating.
* Intermittent suicidal demeanor, threats or gesticulation, or self-mutilating demeanor.
* A pattern of unsteady and extreme interpersonal relationships typified by alternating amid extremes of devaluation and idealization.
Interpersonal Symptoms
* Identity disturbance, persistently and markedly unbalanced self-image.
* Hysterical efforts to evade real or imaginary abandonment.
Cognitive Symptoms
* Transitory, stress-linked awkward ideation or chronic dissociative symptoms.
How Behaviors Associated With Bpd Differ From Similar Behaviors Considered Normal in American Culture
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) causes individuals to have patterns of developing unsteady relationships with other people. Persons affected with BPD may depict some problems in the way they perceive themselves, and are usually extremely impulsive. Several psychology researchers think that persons who develop BPD may have experienced childhood trauma, generally neglect or abuse. Other scholars think BPD is as a result of excessive sensitivity in the component of the brain that controls emotions. BPD may cause individuals to experience paranoid thoughts as well as extreme, unmanageable mood swings. Occasionally persons with BPD demonstrate patterns of extreme, stormy, and unsteady relationships with other people, as well as difficulty upholding intimate, close relationships (Winograd, 2008).
BPD causes frequent exhibitions of inapt anger. Persons the disorder often seems to cling on to others, and perceive their relationships rather differently from what would be regarded as normal. For instance, an individual with BPD may stumble upon a stranger and immediately decide that the stranger is actually their closest friend. Persons with BPD tend to consider others with intense emotions, but may quickly experience feelings of intense dislike or hate. It is common occurrence in these people to indict their families of abandoning them (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
Some characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder comprise of intense fear of being rejected or abandoned by others. Persons with BPD are particularly responsive to their surroundings, and are frequently fearful of any change, particularly changes in procedures or plans.
Ways in Which BPD is Treated
There several options for treatment accessible for persons suffering from BPD. Medication is one of the treatment options. Psychopharmacology is utilized in treating patients with BPD, whereby contemporary advances in medicine have introduced new medications that ease the symptoms of BPD. Mood stabilizers such as antidepressants are among the available medications that help persons suffering from BPD. The mood stabilizers help in alleviating a number of the frantic, distressed feelings frequently linked to BPD. Psychopharmacology is norma...