A personality disorder in which there are oddities of thought (magical thinking, paranoid ideation, suspiciousness), perception (illusions, depersonalization), speech (digressive, vague, overelaborate), and behavior (inappropriate affect in social interactions, frequently social isolation) that are not severe enough to characterize schizophrenia.

A major deviation from normal patterns of behavior.

The artificial language of schizophrenic patients - neologisms (words of the patient's own making with new meanings).

A personality disorder marked by a pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. (DSM-IV)

A personality disorder manifested by a profound defect in the ability to form social relationships, no desire for social involvement, and an indifference to praise or criticism.

Behavior-response patterns that characterize the individual.

Standardized procedures utilizing rating scales or interview schedules carried out by health personnel for evaluating the degree of mental illness.

A severe emotional disorder of psychotic depth characteristically marked by a retreat from reality with delusion formation, HALLUCINATIONS, emotional disharmony, and regressive behavior.

Signs and symptoms of higher cortical dysfunction caused by organic conditions. These include certain behavioral alterations and impairments of skills involved in the acquisition, processing, and utilization of knowledge or information.

Beliefs and practices concerned with producing desired results through supernatural forces or agents as with the manipulation of fetishes or rituals.

Study of mental processes and behavior of schizophrenics.

Check list, usually to be filled out by a person about himself, consisting of many statements about personal characteristics which the subject checks.

The determination and evaluation of personality attributes by interviews, observations, tests, or scales. Articles concerning personality measurement are considered to be within scope of this term.

A triangular double membrane separating the anterior horns of the LATERAL VENTRICLES of the brain. It is situated in the median plane and bounded by the CORPUS CALLOSUM and the body and columns of the FORNIX (BRAIN).

Voluntary acceptance of a child of other parents to be as one's own child, usually with legal confirmation.

Categorical classification of MENTAL DISORDERS based on criteria sets with defining features. It is produced by the American Psychiatric Association. (DSM-IV, page xxii)

A personality disorder whose essential feature is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. The individual must be at least age 18 and must have a history of some symptoms of CONDUCT DISORDER before age 15. (From DSM-IV, 1994)

Lower lateral part of the cerebral hemisphere responsible for auditory, olfactory, and semantic processing. It is located inferior to the lateral fissure and anterior to the OCCIPITAL LOBE.

Disorder characterized by an emotionally constricted manner that is unduly conventional, serious, formal, and stingy, by preoccupation with trivial details, rules, order, organization, schedules, and lists, by stubborn insistence on having things one's own way without regard for the effects on others, by poor interpersonal relationships, and by indecisiveness due to fear of making mistakes.

Learning to respond verbally to a verbal stimulus cue.

Tests designed to assess neurological function associated with certain behaviors. They are used in diagnosing brain dysfunction or damage and central nervous system disorders or injury.

Computer-assisted interpretation and analysis of various mathematical functions related to a particular problem.

Tests designed to measure intellectual functioning in children and adults.

Standardized objective tests designed to facilitate the evaluation of personality.

Elongated gray mass of the neostriatum located adjacent to the lateral ventricle of the brain.

A personality disorder characterized by the avoidance of accepting deserved blame and an unwarranted view of others as malevolent. The latter is expressed as suspiciousness, hypersensitivity, and mistrust.

Dominance of one cerebral hemisphere over the other in cerebral functions.

Non-invasive method of demonstrating internal anatomy based on the principle that atomic nuclei in a strong magnetic field absorb pulses of radiofrequency energy and emit them as radiowaves which can be reconstructed into computerized images. The concept includes proton spin tomographic techniques.

Disturbances in mental processes related to learning, thinking, reasoning, and judgment.

Behavioral manifestations of cerebral dominance in which there is preferential use and superior functioning of either the left or the right side, as in the preferred use of the right hand or right foot.

A type of schizophrenia characterized by frequent incoherence; marked loosening of associations, or grossly disorganized behavior and flat or grossly inappropriate affect that does not meet the criteria for the catatonic type; associated features include extreme social withdrawal, grimacing, mannerisms, mirror gazing, inappropriate giggling, and other odd behavior. (Dorland, 27th ed)

Four CSF-filled (see CEREBROSPINAL FLUID) cavities within the cerebral hemispheres (LATERAL VENTRICLES), in the midline (THIRD VENTRICLE) and within the PONS and MEDULLA OBLONGATA (FOURTH VENTRICLE).

A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable.

A false belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that persists despite the facts, and is not considered tenable by one's associates.

A personality disorder characterized by a pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of that leads to submissive and clinging behavior and fears of separation, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. (From DSM-IV, 1994)

Mood or emotional responses dissonant with or inappropriate to the behavior and/or stimulus.

Inability to experience pleasure due to impairment or dysfunction of normal psychological and neurobiological mechanisms. It is a symptom of many PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS (e.g., DEPRESSIVE DISORDER, MAJOR; and SCHIZOPHRENIA).

A technique of inputting two-dimensional images into a computer and then enhancing or analyzing the imagery into a form that is more useful to the human observer.

A personality disorder characterized by overly reactive and intensely expressed or overly dramatic behavior, proneness to exaggeration, emotional excitability, and disturbances in interpersonal relationships.

Assessment of psychological variables by the application of mathematical procedures.

A directed conversation aimed at eliciting information for psychiatric diagnosis, evaluation, treatment planning, etc. The interview may be conducted by a social worker or psychologist.

A set of statistical methods for analyzing the correlations among several variables in order to estimate the number of fundamental dimensions that underlie the observed data and to describe and measure those dimensions. It is used frequently in the development of scoring systems for rating scales and questionnaires.

A state in which attention is largely directed outward from the self.

A personality disorder characterized by an indirect resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance; anger and opposition to authority and the expectations of others that is expressed covertly by obstructionism, procrastination, stubbornness, dawdling, forgetfulness, and intentional inefficiency. (Dorland, 27th ed)

Maleness or femaleness as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from SEX CHARACTERISTICS, anatomical or physiological manifestations of sex, and from SEX DISTRIBUTION, the number of males and females in given circumstances.

Recording of electric currents developed in the brain by means of electrodes applied to the scalp, to the surface of the brain, or placed within the substance of the brain.

Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.

Imaging techniques used to colocalize sites of brain functions or physiological activity with brain structures.

A psychoanalytic term meaning self-love.

Those disorders that have a disturbance in mood as their predominant feature.

Disorders in which there is a loss of ego boundaries or a gross impairment in reality testing with delusions or prominent hallucinations. (From DSM-IV, 1994)

Growth of habitual patterns of behavior in childhood and adolescence.

Disorders in which the symptoms are distressing to the individual and recognized by him or her as being unacceptable. Social relationships may be greatly affected but usually remain within acceptable limits. The disturbance is relatively enduring or recurrent without treatment.