How do personality disorder differ from personality traits?

The difference is that Personality Disorders affect only a few rare individuals whereas everybody has individual Personality Traits.

Personality Disorders are problems a few men or women may have in their personality which get them into trouble in their lives. These are characterised by that person's failure to learn from experience or adapt appropriately to changes. As a result people having one or more Personality Disorders usually experience personal distress, serious impairment of social functioning and difficulties in employment, usually leading to them being failures in their working life and/or committing criminal offences sometimes leading to jail.

There are three groups of personality disorders that people may suffer from, although most people with personality disorders tend to have two or more of them within their overall personality and character. The groups involve :

a/ Extremely weird behaviour - including a Paranoid Personality Disorder, a Schizoid Personality Disorder, a Schizotypal Personality Disorder, and Self- Defeating or Masochist Personality Disorder.

b/ Extremely dramatic/emotional behaviour - including Histrionic Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder & Antisocial Personality Disorder.

c/ Behaviour dominated by anxiety and/or fear - including Dependent Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and Passive Aggressive Personality Disorder.


Regarding Personality Traits, we all have them. They are a normal part of being a human being whether you are male or female. Assessment of any normal individual's personality involves assessing the degree he or she has or does not have of each of what are termed "the Big Five Personality Factor Models". These 5 are:-

1. Openness to experience.
2. Conscientiousness.
3. Extroversion.
4. Agreeableness
5. Emotional stability or Neurosis