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What are personality traits?
• Personality traits refer to a person’s individual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
• These patterns of thinking and behaving usually begin in childhood and continue through
to adulthood.
• Our personality traits make us who we are — they are what make each of us unique.
• However, personality traits can be a problem when they cause problems with
relationships, education or employment, and sometimes with the law.
• If patterns of thinking, feeling, or behaving are creating lots of problems in many areas
of a person’s life, they may have a personality disorder.
What is a personality disorder?
• There is a wide range of personality disorders (see
Table 1). All of them involve
pervasive
patterns of
thinking and behaving, which means that the patterns
exist in every area of a person’s life (that is, work, study,
home, leisure and so on).
• The most significant feature of personality disorders
is their negative effect on personal relationships.
A person with an untreated personality disorder
often has difficulty forming long-term, meaningful,
and rewarding relationships with others.
• Individuals with a personality disorder are generally
not upset by their own thoughts and behaviours,
but may become distressed by the consequences
of their behaviours.