The rejection-rage contingency in borderline personality disorder.

Though long-standing clinical observation reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.) suggests that the rage characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD) often appears in response to perceived rejection, the role of perceived rejection in triggering rage in BPD has never been empirically tested. Extending basic personality research on rejection sensitivity to a clinical sample, a priming-pronunciation experiment and a 21-day experience-sampling diary examined the contingent relationship between perceived rejection and rage in participants diagnosed with BPD compared with healthy controls. Despite the differences in these 2 assessment methods, the indices of rejection-contingent rage that they both produced were elevated in the BPD group and were strongly interrelated. They provide corroborating evidence that reactions to perceived rejection significantly explain the rage seen in BPD.

[1]  N. Bolger,et al.  Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived. , 2003, Annual review of psychology.

[2]  Kenneth N. Levy,et al.  The relational context of aggression in borderline personality disorder: using adult attachment style to predict forms of hostility. , 2008, Journal of clinical psychology.

[3]  Anett Gyurak,et al.  Individual differences in the rejection-aggression link in the hot sauce paradigm: The case of Rejection Sensitivity. , 2008, Journal of experimental social psychology.

[4]  P. Pilkonis,et al.  An Attachment Model of Personality Disorders. , 2005 .

[5]  J. Neuhaus,et al.  Fixed Effects Regression Methods for Longitudinal Data Using SAS , 2006 .

[6]  G. Downey,et al.  Regulating the interpersonal self: strategic self-regulation for coping with rejection sensitivity. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  A. Slade.  The implications of attachment theory and research for adult psychotherapy: Research and clinical perspectives. , 2008 .

[8]  C. Lejuez,et al.  Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder. , 2006, Emotion.

[9]  G. Downey,et al.  Rejection Sensitivity and Executive Control: Joint predictors of Borderline Personality features. , 2008, Journal of research in personality.

[10]  Rejection sensitivity and children's interpersonal difficulties. , 1998, Child development.

[11]  Benjamin J. Shannon,et al.  Premotor functional connectivity predicts impulsivity in juvenile offenders , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[12]  D. Balota,et al.  Depth of Automatic Spreading Activation: Mediated Priming Effects in Pronunciation but Not in Lexical Decision , 1986 .

[13]  C Henry,et al.  Affective instability and impulsivity in borderline personality and bipolar II disorders: similarities and differences. , 2001, Journal of psychiatric research.

[14]  Kenneth N. Levy,et al.  Attachment and Borderline Personality Disorder: Implications for Psychotherapy , 2005, Psychopathology.

[15]  P Raymond,et al.  Attractiveness of the underling: an automatic power --> sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  R. Bradley,et al.  The psychodynamics of borderline personality disorder: A view from developmental psychopathology , 2005, Development and Psychopathology.

[17]  M. Linehan,et al.  High-risk situations associated with parasuicide and drug use in borderline personality disorder. , 2002, Journal of personality disorders.

[18]  Robert P. Abelson,et al.  A Variance Explanation Paradox : When a Little is a Lot , 1985 .

[19]  Eric Turkheimer,et al.  Traits associated with personality disorders and adjustment to military life: predictive validity of self and peer reports. , 2004, Military medicine.

[20]  D. Lynam,et al.  Psychopathic traits from the perspective of self and informant reports: is there evidence for a lack of insight? , 2011, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[21]  M. First,et al.  Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis II personality disorders : SCID-II , 1997 .

[22]  S. Herpertz,et al.  Emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder-a review of the literature. , 2009, Journal of personality disorders.

[23]  R. Ulrich,et al.  Can we study (treat) borderline patients? Attrition from research and open treatment. , 1992 .

[24]  M. Lenzenweger,et al.  Major Theories of Personality Disorder , 1997 .

[25]  K. Phillips,et al.  A current view of the interface between borderline personality disorder and depression. , 1991, The American journal of psychiatry.

[26]  T. Trull,et al.  Affective instability: measuring a core feature of borderline personality disorder with ecological momentary assessment. , 2008, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[27]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[28]  M. First,et al.  User's guide for the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders : SCID-I : clinical version , 1997 .

[29]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[30]  Virginia M. Bowden,et al.  Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research , 1993 .

[31]  M. Olschewski,et al.  Predictors of dropout from inpatient dialectical behavior therapy among women with borderline personality disorder. , 2008, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.

[32]  Harvard Medical School,et al.  Associations in the course of personality disorders and Axis I disorders over time. , 2004, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[33]  Daniel S Pine,et al.  Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues. , 2009, Journal of research in personality.

[34]  Kenneth N. Levy,et al.  An object relations perspective on borderline personality , 2002, Acta Neuropsychiatrica.

[35]  Daniel J. Barrett,et al.  An Introduction to Computerized Experience Sampling in Psychology , 2001 .

[36]  D. Zuroff,et al.  Stability and variability of affective experience and interpersonal behavior in borderline personality disorder. , 2007, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[37]  T. Trull,et al.  Clinical assessment of affective instability: comparing EMA indices, questionnaire reports, and retrospective recall. , 2009, Psychological assessment.

[38]  G. Downey,et al.  Rejection sensitivity and the rejection-hostility link in romantic relationships. , 2010, Journal of personality.

[39]  G. Downey,et al.  Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. , 2007 .

[40]  F. Yeomans,et al.  Predictors of dropout in psychodynamic psychotherapy of borderline personality disorder. , 1995, The Journal of psychotherapy practice and research.

[41]  J. Bargh,et al.  Attractiveness of the underling: an automatic power --> sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  J. Fahrenberg,et al.  Aversive tension in patients with borderline personality disorder: a computer‐based controlled field study , 2005, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[43]  M. Leary,et al.  Interpersonal Rejection as a Determinant of Anger and Aggression , 2006, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[44]  J. Hennen,et al.  Psychosocial functioning of borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects followed prospectively for six years. , 2005, Journal of personality disorders.

[45]  M. Whisman,et al.  Social consequences of borderline personality disorder symptoms in a population-based survey: marital distress, marital violence, and marital disruption. , 2009, Journal of personality disorders.

[46]  W. Mischel,et al.  A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. , 1995, Psychological review.

[47]  F. Hénin,et al.  [Social consequences]. , 1992, Soins. Chirurgie.

[48]  Janet B W Williams.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[49]  T. McGlashan,et al.  Predictors of 2-year outcome for patients with borderline personality disorder. , 2006, The American journal of psychiatry.

[50]  William C. Pedersen,et al.  Understanding Impulsive Aggression: Angry Rumination and Reduced Self-Control Capacity Are Mechanisms Underlying the Provocation-Aggression Relationship , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[51]  G. Downey,et al.  The self-fulfilling prophecy in close relationships: rejection sensitivity and rejection by romantic partners. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[52]  G. Downey,et al.  Does rejection elicit hostility in rejection sensitive women , 1999 .

[53]  G. Downey,et al.  Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  Philip D. Harvey,et al.  Characterizing affective instability in borderline personality disorder. , 2002, The American journal of psychiatry.

[55]  I. Myin-Germeys,et al.  A momentary assessment study of the reputed emotional phenotype associated with borderline personality disorder , 2007, Psychological Medicine.

[56]  Mally Shechory,et al.  Pathways to Women's Crime: Differences Among Women Convicted of Drug, Violence and Fraud Offenses , 2011, The Journal of social psychology.

[57]  A. Modell.  An object relations perspective , 1987 .

[58]  James K McNulty,et al.  The Dark Side of Forgiveness: The Tendency to Forgive Predicts Continued Psychological and Physical Aggression in Marriage , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[59]  Daniel J. Bauer,et al.  The disaggregation of within-person and between-person effects in longitudinal models of change. , 2011, Annual review of psychology.

[60]  N. Bolger,et al.  A framework for studying personality in the stress process. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[61]  Kenneth N. Levy.  The implications of attachment theory and research for understanding borderline personality disorder , 2005, Development and Psychopathology.

[62]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , 1970 .

[63]  R. Krueger,et al.  Co-occurrence with syndrome disorders. , 2001 .

[64]  W. Livesley.  Handbook of personality disorders : theory, research, and treatment , 2001 .

[65]  Marsha M. Linehan,et al.  A Valence-Dependent Group-Specific Recall Bias of Retrospective Self-Reports: A Study of Borderline Personality Disorder in Everyday Life , 2006, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[66]  M. Oquendo,et al.  Interpersonal precipitants and suicide attempts in borderline personality disorder. , 2006, Suicide & life-threatening behavior.

[67]  Masumi Iida,et al.  A Procedure for Evaluating Sensitivity to Within-Person Change: Can Mood Measures in Diary Studies Detect Change Reliably? , 2006, Personality & social psychology bulletin.