Key terms and concepts that may be included in student responses:
▪ Similarities including rapidly shifting emotions and intense, unstable relationships.
▪ People with borderline personality disorder also show self-destructiveness, angry disruptions in close relationships, and chronic feelings of inner emptiness, while people with histrionic personality disorder behave in ways to draw attention to themselves across situations.
▪ A person with borderline personality disorder may desperately cling to others as an expression of self-doubt and unstable identity, but a person with histrionic personality disorder simply wants flattering nurturance and preferential attention.
▪ People with histrionic personality disorder often feel trusting of and influenced by others, particularly strong authority figures.
▪ Individuals with histrionic personality disorder pursue others' attention by being highly dramatic (e.g., gregarious, exaggerated emotional expression)and overtly seductive and by flamboyantly emphasizing the positive qualities of their physical appearance.