People have different personalities that make them unique and stand out among others; ones personality is an element of biological and social factors (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010). Personality is defined as the totality of inner attributes of a person that dictates or influences the way he perceives life; it is portrayed in one’s behaviour, attitude, and belief. Within the community, there are people who suffer from personality disorder: personality disorder is a pervasive chronic psychological disorder, which influences how a person behaves, perceives life, attitudes, character, and perception. The main difference with personality is that a person suffering from personality disorder has a level of abnormality. He deviates from what is generally accepted (Brand, 2009). There are different types of personality disorder; this paper focuses on borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
A person suffering from this disorder has a problem in self-identity and self-esteem, the person feels that he does not understand himself and other people can easily manipulate him. People around a person suffering from the disorder describe him as changeable and as having a set direction. Patients suffer from rapid mood swings and anger outbursts (Carla & Romero, 2007).
Describe how the disorder could affect memory.
A person suffering from the disorder suffers from memory lapses; he cannot hold and remember something for a long periods; memory is the mental strength to keep some information in one’s mind and probably process the information for making decisions. A person suffering from a psychological disorder has his mental power not well developed thus his memory is not intact. In school, students suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) do not perform well since they do not remember much of what they have been taught (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010).
Provide a brief description of any biological influences on the memory of individuals with this disorder.
A person’s intelligence and minds power has a close collaboration with biological factors; mental power has some elements of hereditary thus influenced by biological factors. When a child is born in a family with people of short memory, the child is more likely to follow in the same step. Personality disorder is influenced by inborn traits that a person gets from their parents; some characters and traits run down a family, thus a child born from a family with a certain personality disorder is likely to develop the disorder too.
Is there any memory distortions commonly involved with the disorder?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with short memory lapses; a patient suffering the condition is likely to start something but be carried away by something else rather than the original thing he was doing. His mind is not settled on one thing but does more than one thing at a time. When starting the second activity, he is likely to have forgotten that he was doing the earlier (Brand, 2009).
Evaluate the effectiveness of at least two therapies used to treat the disorder.
Personality disorder conditions cannot be treated using medication but they are treated using psychological therapies; in treating Borderline personality disorder, (BPD) two therapies are used:
Group therapy
These are artificial communities developed to engage people with the disorder. The environments give the patients a chance to interact and participate in different activities calling for decisiveness. In so doing the patients learn how to make and hold to a certain decision as well accommodate others in his decision.
Therapeutic communities
The approach taken by this therapy is that an artificial environment is created where there are different roles that are supposed to be undertaken. At different times, there is rotational leadership role among the members to ensure that they all get a chance to make the controlling decision, by so doing they raise the esteem of members.
In both the therapies, experts are on the ground to improve individual people’s behaviour and assist them mould their personality (Mullins-Sweatt & Widiger, 2010).
Conclusion
A person suffering from this disorder has a problem in self-identity and self-esteem, the person feels that he does not understand himself and other people can easily manipulate him. Some of the symptoms of the disorder are memory lapses and low concentration; the condition can be treated using psychological therapies, the commonly used therapies are group and therapeutic therapy.
References
Brand, B., et al. (2009). Personality differences on the Rorschach of dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder, and psychotic inpatients. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 1(3), 188-205.
Carla, S.,& Romero, C.(2007). Borderline personality disorder: A comparison between children and adults. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 71(2), 85-114.
Carpenter, S., & Huffman, K. (2010). Visualizing Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Mullins-Sweatt, N., & Widiger, T. (2010). Personality-related problems in living: An empirical approach. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1(4), 230-238.