INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF DAILY PERSONALITY IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

This thesis investigates whether daily changes in a person’s personality are associated with daily changes in a person’s Borderline Personality Disorder (borderline) symptoms. A large body of literature has suggested an association between Five-factor model (FFM) personality and borderline symptoms, and some researchers suggest that PD symptoms can be understood as maladaptive variants of personality structure. This thesis investigated this association using the Prototype Matching Technique, whereby daily personality was measured in terms of the degree of convergence between a person’s FFM personality profile and an expert-rated FFM PD prototype for borderline PD (Lynam & Widiger, 2001). The first set of analyses investigated the amount of between-day within-person variability in personality and symptoms to make sure that enough variability in each variable exists such that co-variation between the two was possible. The second set of analyses tested between-person associations between FFM BPD convergence, assessed using daily measures of FFM personality, and daily borderline symptoms. The third set of analyses tested within-person associations between daily FFM BPD convergence and daily borderline symptoms. The fourth set of analyses explored the mediational role of daily FFM BPD convergence in the association between daily psychosocial stressors and daily borderline symptoms. The results offer partial support to the theory that PD symptoms are maladaptive variants of personality structure. They suggest (i) shared proximal psychological processes that bring about co-varying changes in personality and borderline symptoms; and (ii) a possible psychological process at the within-person level, wherein changes in personality states bring about changes in borderline symptoms. One interesting interpretation of these results is that every person is capable of having borderline PD on some days, and that people may move back and forth based on the stresses they encounter and changes in their personality from day to day.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Weiss, Brandon

• Borderline

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/57093

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/57093