<p>According to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.10.009" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a recent (2016) paper</a> that proposed seemingly the first specialized scale for measuring this trait (which they call NFD = need for drama):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Clinicians have studied individuals who engage in clinically relevant
  dramatic behaviors and labeled them with borderline or histrionic
  personality disorders (BPD and HPD, respectively). Borderline personality disorder is defined by impulsivity,
  self-harming behaviors, chaos and instability in interpersonal
  relationships, and feelings of victimization; and HPD is defined by extreme
  sensitivity to criticism, excessive attention seeking, and need for
  approval from others.</p>
  
  <p>Whereas BPD and HPD offer a framework for understanding dramatic
  personalities, they may not be the most effective for examining
  dramatic personalities in samples that are not clinically relevant; and
  may not be suitable as predictors of work-related performance and
  counterproductive work behaviors (Guenole, 2014). A compound personality
  trait, such as NFD, is more suitable to assess individuals within
  work environments. Furthermore, whereas BPD and HPD have a troubled
  history as sex-biased diagnoses that may be unsuitably applied to
  organizational and social research questions, we hypothesize that NFD
  is prevalent equally in men and women in the population and that our measure of NFD is suitable for non-clinical research</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Note that both HPD and BPD belong to the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_B_personality_disorders" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"dramatic" cluster (B) of persnoality disorders</a>. Also, there has been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20728002" rel="nofollow noreferrer">criticism of the HPD construct</a>, particularly in that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19008729" rel="nofollow noreferrer">it overlaps BPD too much</a>, but HPD was nonetheless kept in DSM-5... and this basically a decision of the board of trustees, which overruled their own working group that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23187088" rel="nofollow noreferrer">had agreed</a> to the deletion of HPD. Also interesting is that an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23013338" rel="nofollow noreferrer">independent survey</a> of personality disorder experts had found HPD the lowest validity (if we go by the "very valid" ranking) of all DSM-IV personality diagnoses, but nonetheless they saw it as valid enough to be kept.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/40Dwa.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/40Dwa.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/IhCRn.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/IhCRn.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Moving on to the new kid, NFD, its compound aspect refers to three subscales:</p>

<ul>
<li>Interpersonal manipulation (IPM)</li>
<li>Impulsive outspokenness (IO)</li>
<li>Persistent perceived victimhood (PPV)</li>
</ul>

<p>And they correlated their NFD measure with the big 5 personality factors</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/7d82V.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/7d82V.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>and with a host of other scales, in particular a measure of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dark triad</a></p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/A6qEV.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/A6qEV.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>The also found that there was no bias for either sex in the samples they used to validate their NFD scale. But they did not correlate with clinical scales for either BPD or HPD, leaving that for future research.</p>

<p>Time will tell if this NFD scale will see adoption by other researchers. If you want to use their terminology "high NFD individual" would be the scientifically sounding term, or maybe just 'high drama' individuals. Given their finding that men and women are equally prone to this... the received term "drama queen" seems somewhat inappropriate (sexist).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-03T10:14:32.103Z
2018-01-03T11:57:52.183Z
2018-01-03T11:57:52.183Z
got trolled too much this week
<p>Generally this would be a histrionic personality type.  More information can be found <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/histrionic-personality-disorder" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-02T23:30:42.813Z
2018-01-02T23:30:42.813Z
Stacy
<p>I know someone who is very dramatic, sometimes I think they create dramas because they need it in their life, I’ve heard of other people describe the same thing, is there a name for this type of behaviour </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-11T09:07:57.913Z
This question does not include sufficient initial research which is expected on this site.
Steven Jeuris
<behavior>
Name of the psychological condition for someone who creates dramas because they need it in their lives
ben
# Name of the psychological condition for someone who creates dramas because they need it in their lives

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-12-28)

I know someone who is very dramatic, sometimes I think they create dramas because they need it in their life, I’ve heard of other people describe the same thing, is there a name for this type of behaviour

**Tags:** behavior

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This question does not include sufficient initial research which is expected on this site.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-03. Score: 2

According to [a recent (2016) paper](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.10.009) that proposed seemingly the first specialized scale for measuring this trait (which they call NFD = need for drama):

> Clinicians have studied individuals who engage in clinically relevant
> dramatic behaviors and labeled them with borderline or histrionic
> personality disorders (BPD and HPD, respectively). Borderline personality disorder is defined by impulsivity,
> self-harming behaviors, chaos and instability in interpersonal
> relationships, and feelings of victimization; and HPD is defined by extreme
> sensitivity to criticism, excessive attention seeking, and need for
> approval from others.
>
> Whereas BPD and HPD offer a framework for understanding dramatic
> personalities, they may not be the most effective for examining
> dramatic personalities in samples that are not clinically relevant; and
> may not be suitable as predictors of work-related performance and
> counterproductive work behaviors (Guenole, 2014). A compound personality
> trait, such as NFD, is more suitable to assess individuals within
> work environments. Furthermore, whereas BPD and HPD have a troubled
> history as sex-biased diagnoses that may be unsuitably applied to
> organizational and social research questions, we hypothesize that NFD
> is prevalent equally in men and women in the population and that our measure of NFD is suitable for non-clinical research

Note that both HPD and BPD belong to the so-called ["dramatic" cluster (B) of persnoality disorders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_B_personality_disorders). Also, there has been [criticism of the HPD construct](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20728002), particularly in that [it overlaps BPD too much](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19008729), but HPD was nonetheless kept in DSM-5... and this basically a decision of the board of trustees, which overruled their own working group that [had agreed](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23187088) to the deletion of HPD. Also interesting is that an [independent survey](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23013338) of personality disorder experts had found HPD the lowest validity (if we go by the "very valid" ranking) of all DSM-IV personality diagnoses, but nonetheless they saw it as valid enough to be kept.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/40Dwa.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/40Dwa.png)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/IhCRn.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/IhCRn.png)

Moving on to the new kid, NFD, its compound aspect refers to three subscales:

* Interpersonal manipulation (IPM)
* Impulsive outspokenness (IO)
* Persistent perceived victimhood (PPV)

And they correlated their NFD measure with the big 5 personality factors

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/7d82V.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/7d82V.png)

and with a host of other scales, in particular a measure of the [dark triad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/A6qEV.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/A6qEV.png)

The also found that there was no bias for either sex in the samples they used to validate their NFD scale. But they did not correlate with clinical scales for either BPD or HPD, leaving that for future research.

Time will tell if this NFD scale will see adoption by other researchers. If you want to use their terminology "high NFD individual" would be the scientifically sounding term, or maybe just 'high drama' individuals. Given their finding that men and women are equally prone to this... the received term "drama queen" seems somewhat inappropriate (sexist).


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-01-02. Score: 0

Generally this would be a histrionic personality type. More information can be found [here](https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/histrionic-personality-disorder).


---

