Avoidant Personality Disorder Defined

Avoidant personality disorder (APD) is considered to be an active-detached personality pattern, meaning that avoidants purposefully avoid people due to fears of humiliation and rejection. It's thought to be a pathological syndromal extension of the “normal inhibited” personality, which is characterized by a watchful behavioral appearance, shy interpersonal conduct, a preoccupied cognitive style, uneasy affective expression and a lonely self-perception ( Millon and Everly ). According to this view, the avoidant pattern seems to range in varying degrees along a symptomological continuum from mild to extreme. In mild cases, a person may be said to be normally shy, whereas extreme cases indicate personality disorder.

Avoidant Personality Disorder vs. Generalized Social Phobia

The symptoms of APD overlap with those of generalized social phobia. Widiger (1992) reviewed 3 studies (Holt; Herbert; Turner et al. [1992]) which demonstrated that GSP and APD are based on the same underlying pathology and differ primarily in the severity of social anxiety and social functioning, with APD being the more severe disorder. The evidence that most people diagnosed with APD will also meet the diagnostic criteria for GSP, but people with GSP do not necessarily have APD supports this view.

DSM Criteria

The DSM-IV describes Avoidant Personality Disorder as:

A pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by 4 (or more) of the following:

1. avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact because of fears of criticism, disapproval or rejection
2. is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked
3. shows restraint within intimate relationships because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed
4. is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social situations
5. is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy
6. views self as socially inept, personally unappealing or inferior to others
7. is unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarrassing

continue: How Does A Person with Avoidant Personality Disorder Appear to Others?

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Reviewed: 04/2006