Match each example below with one of the following disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Carl cannot bear to be in small, enclosed places, such as elevators, and goes to great lengths to avoid them. Recently he turned down a high-paying job with an air-conditioning repair company because it involved working in crawl spaces.

Dissociative disorders involve a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness, and memory. People experiencing these disorders often escape reality in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy, possibly due to psychological trauma or stress. One such condition is dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder, which is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states that may control a person's behavior at different times.

Another variant is dissociative amnesia with dissociative fugue, where an individual temporarily loses their sense of personal identity and may even establish a new identity elsewhere, often triggered by overwhelming stress or trauma. These are complex psychological conditions that go beyond everyday forgetfulness or daydreaming, requiring professional diagnosis and treatment.

Personality disorders are characterized by enduring patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience that deviate markedly from the expectations of an individual's culture. These patterns are inflexible, pervasive across many contexts, and lead to significant distress or functional impairment.

For example, antisocial personality disorder is marked by a lack of regard for the rights of others, impulsivity, deceitfulness, and a failure to conform to social norms. By contrast, borderline personality disorder presents with a pattern of instability in relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity. Individuals might experience intense episodes of anger, depression, and anxiety that can last from a few hours to days. Understanding these patterns is critical for mental health professionals to provide appropriate care and support for those affected.

A specific phobia is a type of anxiety disorder characterized by a pronounced fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation. The fear is disproportionate to the actual danger posed and often leads to avoidance behavior or enduring the situation with intense fear. Specific phobias can center on a diverse range of situations such as fear of flying (aviophobia), fear of spiders (arachnophobia), or fear of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia).

The exercise's subject, Carl, clearly experiences a phobia focused on small, enclosed spaces. His fear is intense enough that it impacted his job choice, which is a hallmark of phobic avoidance behavior. Effective treatments for specific phobias often involve exposure therapy, which gradually and systematically desensitizes an individual to the feared object or situation.