Discuss the gender differences found in personality disorders. Give specific examples of disorders where gender differences occur. Do the disparities indicate differences between men and women in certain basic experiences that are genetic, sociocultural, or both, or do they represent biases on the part of the clinicians who make the diagnoses?

Question

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Answer 1

Sample Answer: Borderline personality disorder is diagnosed more often in females, who make up about 75% of the identified cases. Historically, histrionic and dependent personality disorders were identified by clinicians more often in women, but according to more recent studies of their prevalence in the general population, equal numbers of males and females may have histrionic and dependent personality disorders. In a classic study, researchers sent fictitious case histories to clinical psychologists for diagnosis. One case described a person with antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by irresponsible and reckless behavior and usually diagnosed in males; the other case described a person with histrionic personality disorder, which is characterized by excessive emotionality and attention seeking and more often diagnosed in females. The subject was identified as male in some versions of each case and as female in others, although everything else was identical. When the antisocial personality disorder case was labeled male, most psychologists gave the correct diagnosis. However, when the same case of antisocial personality disorder was labeled female, most psychologists diagnosed it as histrionic personality disorder rather than antisocial personality disorder. In the case of histrionic personality disorder, being labeled a woman increased the likelihood of that diagnosis. The researchers concluded that the psychologists incorrectly diagnosed more women as having histrionic personality disorder. Histrionic personality disorder, like several of the other personality disorders, is biased against females. Many of the features of histrionic personality disorder, such as overdramatization, vanity, seductiveness, and overconcern with physical appearance, are characteristic of the Western "stereotypical female." This disorder may simply be the embodiment of extremely "feminine" traits.