Avoidant Personality Disorder and the Recognition of Fear in Others

Описание: This video answers the question: Do individuals with avoidant personality disorder respond differently to fear in others? When we talk about avoidant personality disorder, we're talking about a construct that's fairly similar to social anxiety disorder. We know from the research that social anxiety disorder has this relationship with fear in other individuals, meaning individuals with social anxiety disorder tend to avoid fearful expressions in other people. So this question is really asking is that the same for avoidant personality disorder. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) there are seven symptoms in the symptom criteria for avoidant personality disorder: avoiding occupational activities where there is significant interpersonal contact because of a fear of criticism disapproval or rejection, an unwillingness to form friendships unless there's a certainty of being liked, trouble with intimate relationships because of fear of shame, a preoccupation with criticism or rejection in social situations, being inhibited with new relationships, feeling inept or inferior, and a reluctance to take risks because of a fear of being embarrassed. There is a theory that avoidant personality disorder is linked to an impaired ability to recognize facial expressions. There are six facial expressions and these have been found to be facial expressions that are recognized across cultures: sadness, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Research indicates that individuals who have avoidant personality disorder may have difficulty identifying full expressions of fear, but do not appear to have impairment with recognizing the remaining facial expressions.

Rosenthal, M. Z., Kim, K., Herr, N. R., Smoski, M. J., Cheavens, J. S., Lynch, T. R., & Kosson, D. S. (2011). Speed and accuracy of facial expression classification in avoidant personality disorder: A preliminary study. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, And Treatment, 2(4), 327-334. doi:10.1037/a0023672