Final answer:
Personality disorders are characterized by enduring patterns of behavior and inner experience that deviate from cultural norms and cause distress or impairment, unlike anxiety, mood, or dissociative disorders.
Step-by-step explanation:
The category of disorders characterized by general styles of living that are ineffective and can lead to problems is called personality disorders. A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time and leads to distress or impairment. Personality disorders cause individuals to exhibit patterns of thinking, feeling, and interacting that can be considered abnormal from societal norms, yet seem consistent or acceptable to the individual.
Anxiety disorders, while prevalent, are characterized by excessive fear or anxiety, significantly different from the inflexible and enduring patterns seen in personality disorders. On the other hand, personality disorders are not characterized by the same types of episodic, mood-related symptoms that define mood disorders. Dissociative disorders involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness, awareness, identity, and/or perception, which are distinct from the patterns in personality disorders.