Encountering difficult
personality styles in the
workplace:
strategies for coping
Dr Richard Evans, BA, MA, PhD, VetMB, MSc, PGDip; Dip.Int.Psych; Dip. Supervision;
MBACP (Senior Accredited); UKCP-Registered Psychotherapist;
UKCP (HIPS)-Registered Supervisor
Senior Lecturer, Counselling Psychology
Dr Kerry Spencer, BA, BSc, PGCE, PGCIMH, DClinPsy, MBpS, CPsychol,
HCPC registered – Applied Psychologist
Lecturer, Counselling Psychology
Contents
• What is a personality style / disorder – a brief
orientation
– Narcissistic personality style – an overview
– Sociopathic personality style – an overview
– Borderline personality style – an overview
• The psychodynamic psychological processes
underlying difficult personality styles
OR Why do they behave like this?
• Management strategies
OR What can we help you to do?
Definition of personality
• Personality refers to enduring patterns of cognition,
emotion, motivation, and behaviour that are activated in
particular circumstances (see Mischel and Shoda 1995;
Westen 1995).
• Two important aspects of personality:
– its dynamic nature (that personality reflects an ongoing interaction of
mental, behavioural, and environmental events)
– the potential for variation and flexibility of responding (activation of
specific processes under particular circumstances).
How common are personality disorders?
• 30-40% of psychiatric patients being treated in the community by a
psychiatric service will have a personality disorder.
• Around 10-30% of patients who see their GP will have a personality
disorder.
www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/problems/personalitydiso
rders/pd.aspx
• About 2 million people in the UK have personality disorders most
commonly borderline and antisocial (NICE, 2009).
• Many more individuals have personality styles on these spectra that
aren’t at clinical levels but can still cause difficulty in the workplace
Ego-Syntonic –
The problem is yours not theirs
• Individuals with personality disorders “represent intriguing
and often unique individuals whose constitutional makeup
and early life experiences have not only misdirected their
development, but have also constructed an unsatisfying
sense of self, a problematic way of expressing thoughts and
feelings, as well as a troublesome manner of behaving and
relating to others.”
Theodore Millon, Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and
Beyond vii (2d ed. 1996)
Cluster B personalities : 'Emotional and
impulsive‘ or Dramatic
Antisocial, or Dissocial (related to
psychopathic/sociopathic)
– don't care about the feelings of others
– are easily frustrated
– tend to be aggressive
– commit crimes
– find it difficult to make intimate relationships
– impulsive - do things on the spur of the
moment without thinking about them
– don’t feel guilty
– don’t learn from unpleasant experiences
Narcissistic
– have a strong sense of their own selfimportance
– dream of unlimited success, power and
intellectual brilliance
– crave attention from other people, but show
few warm feelings in return
– exploit others
– ask for favours that they do not then return
– narcissistic rage or
– narcissitic collapse when they’re criticised or
rejected
Borderline, or Emotionally Unstable
– impulsive
– find it hard to control emotions
– divisive
– feel bad about themself
– often self-harm, e.g. cutting yourself or
making suicide attempts
– feel 'empty’
– make relationships quickly, but easily lose
them
– can feel paranoid or depressed
– when stressed, may hear noises or voices
– flip from idealising to scorn/ hatred and
back, often very rapidly
Histrionic
– over-dramatise events
– self-centered
– show strong emotions, but which change
quickly and don't last long
– can be suggestible
– worry a lot about your appearance
– crave new things and excitement
– can be seductive
THE PSYCHODYNAMIC
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES
UNDERLYING DIFFICULT
PERSONALITY STYLES
OR Why do they behave like this?
Using Applied Psychology –
What can we offer to help you cope?
LEARNING MORE ABOUT THESE PERSONALITY
TRAITS TO PREPARE YOU AND YOUR STAFF TO:
• Understand the specific psychological processes of these
and other difficult personality styles
• Be aware why these individuals may initially be extremely
difficult to spot
• Consider your recruitment methods e.g. psychometrics
• Have an appropriately flexible and attuned management
style, to match the personality styles
• Build and maintain staff relationships
Applied Psychology– What can we offer?
Help for you to:
• Build and maintain staff relationships
• Make you and your staff aware of personal
vulnerabilities so that they are harder to exploit
• Be ready for likely responses and behaviours
from the individual.
• Build and maintain the resilience, wellbeing and
capacity of other staff as good performers
Applied Psychology – What can we offer to
help you to cope?
• LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PERSONALITY
STYLES
• Focus on appropriate limit setting, with a focus on
proper workplace conduct, completion of assigned
tasks, and due consideration of co-worker feelings.
• Develop approaches for dealing with problems and
complaints specifically and with appropriate
suggestions for improvement.
How can we help you to do these things?
• University workshops
• Customized in-house training
• Consultancy
• Collaborative working?
References
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Coid, J, Yang, M, Tyrer, P, Roberts, A and Ullrich, S (2006). Prevalence and
correlates of personality disorder in Great Britain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188,
423-431
Millon, T. (1998) “DSM Narcissistic Personality Disorder” in Elsa F. Ronningstam,
(ed.), Disorders of Narcissism 75, 84.
Millon, T. et al. (2000) Personality Disorders in Modern Life, Second Edition. John
Wiley and Sons; New Jersey.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2009). New NICE guidelines set
to improve treatment and management of people with borderline personality
disorder.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2009). Borderline personality
disorder
Perry, J., Presniak, M. D., & Olson, T. R. (2013). Defense Mechanisms in
Schizotypal, Borderline, Antisocial, and Narcissistic Personality Disorders.
Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 76(1), 32-52.
doi:10.1521/psyc.2013.76.1.32