Borderline Personality Disorder in 3-D: Dimensions, Symptoms, and Measurement Challenges

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a pervasive pattern of psychopathology characterized by unstable affect, suicidal behaviors, and identity problems (Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Washington, DC: Author; 2000). BPD is heterogeneous in nature, highly prevalent in clinical settings, and increasingly studied by clinical and social psychologists. This review highlights affective instability, impulsivity, and interpersonal hypersensitivity, the interaction of which we believe accounts for the symptoms of BPD, the BPD criteria most associated with these features, and the interrelationships among these underlying dimensions. We also discuss difficulties in measurement of these dimensions. Real-world assessment methods will assist in the measurement of timedependent processes and identify causes, covariates, or consequences of these processes to determine how these features manifest themselves in real life.

Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms and Parenting of Adolescent Daughters

“…To analyze the dimensions of BPD that might differentially predict parenting, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) examined a three-factor model, including dimensions of symptoms, that has been previously articulated in a theoretical review: Affective/Behavioral Dysregulation, Interpersonal Dysregulation, and Identity Disturbance (Trull et al, 2010). The Affective/Behavioral Dysregulation factor included items assessing extreme emotional displays, urges, tantrums, anger, and moodiness.…”

“…Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious and chronic mental health disorder characterized by affective and behavioral dysregulation, chaotic interpersonal relationships, and identity disturbance (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Trull, Tomko, Brown, & Scheiderer, 2010). Despite an estimated 6 million women in the United States with BPD (Friedel, 2004), many of whom are likely mothers, little is known about the effects of BPD on parenting behaviors (Stepp, Whalen, Pilkonis, Hipwell, & Levine, 2012).…”

“…Evidence from factor analytic studies suggests that BPD is both a unitary construct and comprises multiple latent domains of dysfunction, including dysregulated behaviors and affects, interpersonal relations, and identity (Trull et al, 2010). Each of these areas of dysfunction might contribute to maladaptive parenting behaviors in unique ways.…”

Interpersonal Problems and Negative Affect in Borderline Personality and Depressive Disorders in Daily Life

“…In general, negative interpersonal events are thought to pose threats to social bonds, which, in turn, generate negative affect (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Interpersonal problems are a key symptom of BPD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Trull, Tomko, Brown, & Scheiderer, 2010), and such events occur frequently in those with the disorder (e.g., Hilsenroth, Menaker, Peters, & Pincus, 2007; Hochschild Tolpin, Cimbolic Gunthert, Cohen, & O'neill, 2004; Russell, Moskowitz, Zuroff, Sookman, & Paris, 2007; Stepp, Hallquist, Morse, & Pilkonis, 2011; Zeigler–Hill & Abraham, 2006). …”

The Interaction between Rejection Sensitivity and Emotional Maltreatment in Borderline Personality Disorder

“…Associations between RS and BPD are perhaps unsurprising due to the conceptual overlap between RS and the BPD diagnostic criterion ‘frantic efforts to avoid abandonment' [2]. The two constructs are, however, distinguished by the behavioral manifestation of rejection fears, which is required to meet the diagnostic criterion in BPD but which may not be part of the cognitive-affective disposition of RS [28,33]. Ayduk et al [28] assert that ‘not everybody who fears and expects rejection should be equally vulnerable to developing [BPD] features' (p. 4).…”