Language Use Patterns Associated with Borderline Personality Pathology: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

We examined language use in daily lives of people with varying levels of Borderline personality pathology. Borderline pathology is characterized by extreme relational instability, which may be reflected in or influenced by patterns of language use. Although language use profiles are associated with personality and some psychological disorders, few studies have examined personality pathology and language in daily life. Participants were recruited through psychiatric clinics, community clinics, fliers, and word-of-mouth. All participants completed diagnostic interviews, and reported borderline symptom frequency daily for two week. Participants also wore devices recording actual sounds of daily life, and these recordings were transcribed and submitted to a text-analysis program (LIWC) to assess language use. Previous analyses focused on participants with elevated levels of borderline pathology and revealed moderate to high correlations between symptom frequency and several language categories. However, approximate randomization tests suggested effect sizes and significant correlations were likely obtained by chance. Additional analyses included participants across the full range of borderline pathology to increase power and generalizability. Quantitative analyses included additional randomization tests to evaluate the possibility of Type I error, and qualitative analyses of transcripts were added to understand the psychosocial context and meaning of key correlations.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Allen, Xia

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38588

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38588