Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders 767
ties; feeling fearful, apprehensive, or threatened by uncertainty; fears of falling
apart or losing control.
3.Separation insecurity  (an aspect of Negative Affectivity ): Fears of rejection by—
and/or separation from—significant others, associated with fears of excessive de-
pendency and complete loss of autonomy.
4.Depressivity  (an aspect of Negative Affectivity): Frequent feelings of being down,
miserable, and/or hopeless; difficulty recovering from such moods; pessimism
about the future; pervasive shame; feelings of inferior self-worth; thoughts of sui-
cide and suicidal behavior.
5.Impulsivity  (an aspect of Disinhibition ): Acting on the spur of the moment in re-
sponse to immediate stimuli; acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consid-
eration of outcomes; difficulty establishing or following plans; a sense of urgency
and self-harming behavior under emotional distress.
6.Risk taking  (an aspect of Disinhibition ): Engagement in dangerous, risky, and po-
tentially self-damaging activities, unnecessarily and without regard to conse-
quences; lack of concern for one’s limitations and denial of the reality of personal
danger.
7.Hostility (an aspect of Antagonism): Persistent or frequent angry feelings; anger
or irritability in response to minor slights and insults.
Specifiers. Trait and level of personalit y functioning specifiers may be used to record ad-
ditional personality features that may be pres ent in borderline personality disorder but are
not required for the diagnosis. For example, traits of Psychoticism (e.g., cognitive and per-
ceptual dysregulation) are not diagnostic crit eria for borderline personality disorder (see