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We present a series of methods and approaches for clinicians interested in tracking their individual patients over time and in the natural settings of their daily lives. The application of person-specific analyses to intensive repeated... more
We present a series of methods and approaches for clinicians interested in tracking their individual patients over time and in the natural settings of their daily lives. The application of person-specific analyses to intensive repeated measurement data can assess some aspects of persons that are distinct from the valuable results obtained from single-occasion assessments. Guided by interpersonal theory, we assess a psychotherapy patient's interpersonal processes as they unfold in his daily life. We highlight specific contexts that change these processes, use an informant report to examine discrepancies in his reported interpersonal processes, and examine how his interpersonal processes differ as a function of varying levels of self-esteem and anger. We advocate for this approach to complement existing psychological assessments and provide a scoring program to facilitate initial implementation.
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The purpose of the current study was to identify enduring dispositions as potential points of contact between social and clinical psychology, investigate trends in their use in clinical research over time, and evaluate their applicability... more
The purpose of the current study was to identify enduring dispositions as potential points of contact between social and clinical psychology, investigate trends in their use in clinical research over time, and evaluate their applicability to the social-clinical interface. In light ofthe "emerging symbiosis" between social and personality psychology (Snyder, 2006; Swann & Seyle, 2005) and the historically strong association between personality and clinical psychology, we hypothesized that individual differences in enduring dispositions could serve as points of contact that would help inform the evolving social-clinical interface and provide a focus for future interface research. The results of our study suggest that despite some lulls, enduring dispositions are consistent aspects of clinical research over the last 40 years and thus serve as an area of overlap and intersection between social and clinical psychology. Our results also suggest that while personality traits are the most widely studied enduring dispositions in clinical psychology, individual differences in cognitive and affective traits, and to a lesser extent, motivation traits, are also broadly applicable to all three interface sub-areas identified by Leary (1987). Results are discussed with reference to historical milestones in clinical psychology that have helped procure the relevance of enduring dispositions to the social-clinical interface.
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Research Interests: Anxiety Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder, Attachment Theory, Medicine, Interpersonal Relationship, and 15 moreAdult attachment, Affect, Humans, Impulse Control Disorders, Negative Affect, Female, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Mental Disorder, American Psychiatric Association, Cross sectional Study, Cross Sectional Studies, General Population, Generating Function, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
Research Interests: Psychology, Personality, Social Interaction, Personality Assessment, Borderline Personality Disorder, and 15 moreAdolescent, Medicine, Humans, Female, Personality Disorder, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Individual variation, Questionnaires, Longitudinal Study, Interaction effect, Predictive value of tests, interpersonal relation, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Rate of Change
Research Interests: Marketing, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Emotional intelligence, Personality, and 15 moreIndividuality, Personality Assessment, Adolescent, Medicine, Humans, Female, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Complementarity, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Middle Aged, Adult, Psychological Models, Interpersonal problems, and interpersonal relation
Research Interests: Marketing, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Personality, Personality Disorders, and 14 moreAdolescent, Medicine, Humans, Personality Development, Female, Personality Disorder, Male, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Questionnaires, Longitudinal Studies, Longitudinal Study, Personality Trait, Personality Inventory, and Remission Spontaneous
Research Interests: Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Self Control, Consulting, Medicine, and 15 moreHumans, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Female, Cognitive Therapy, Male, Cognitive behavior therapy, Interpersonal Relations, Recurrence, Middle Aged, Adult, Component Analysis, Relaxation Therapy, Interpersonal problems, Diagnostic Criteria, and Combined Modality Therapy
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Research Interests: Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Personality, Personality Disorders, Adolescent, and 15 moreLinear Model, Humans, Female, Personality Disorder, Male, Young Adult, Sample Selection, Longitudinal Studies, Regression Model, Longitudinal Study, Mixture Distribution, Self report, Normal Distribution, Personality Trait, and Personality Inventory
Recent theories of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have emphasized interpersonal and personality functioning as important aspects of the disorder. We examined heterogeneity in interpersonal problems in 2 studies of individuals with GAD... more
Recent theories of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have emphasized interpersonal and personality functioning as important aspects of the disorder. We examined heterogeneity in interpersonal problems in 2 studies of individuals with GAD (n = 47 and n = 83). Interpersonal subtypes were assessed with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex (Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990). Across both studies, individuals with GAD exhibited heterogeneous interpersonal problems, and cluster analyses of these patients' interpersonal characteristics yielded 4 replicable clusters, identified as intrusive, exploitable, cold, and nonassertive subtypes. Consistent with our pathoplasticity hypotheses, clusters did not differ with GAD severity, anxiety severity, or depression severity. Clusters in Study 2 differed on rates of personality disorders, including avoidant personality disorder, further providing support for the validity of interpersonal subtypes. The presence of interpersonal subtypes in GAD may have important implications for treatment planning and efficacy.
Research Interests: Abnormal Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Personality, Adolescent, Medicine, and 15 moreAnxiety, Humans, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Female, Personality Disorder, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Aged, Middle Aged, Abnormal, Adult, ANXIETY, Interpersonal problems, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, and interpersonal relation
This study examined two conceptions of perfectionism in relation to interpersonal problems. Two hundred and seventy-nine undergraduate participants completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) and the Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale... more
This study examined two conceptions of perfectionism in relation to interpersonal problems. Two hundred and seventy-nine undergraduate participants completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) and the Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale (DAPS). The authors used empirically derived discriminant functions (APS-R) and cluster analysis (DAPS) to identify three groups for both measures: adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists. Analyses of group profiles were performed on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex (IIP-C) scales using the structural summary method for circumplex data. APS-R and DAPS groups were compared on interpersonal problems endorsement and IIP-C profile characteristics. For both measures, results supported the hypotheses that maladaptive perfectionists would exhibit elevated profiles reflecting hostile-dominant and friendly-submissive interpersonal problems, whereas the adaptive perfectionists would exhibit low profile elevation indicative...
Research Interests: Psychology, Assessment, Personality Disorders, Medicine, Interpersonal Relationship, and 15 moreMultivariate Analysis, Humans, Models, Business and Management, Evaluation methods, Female, Male, Cluster Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Interpersonal Relations, Questionnaires, Self Assessment, Adult, Psychological Models, and Discriminant Function
Deficits in identity as well as negative affect have been shown to predict self-injurious and suicidal behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, less is known about the interactive effects of these two... more
Deficits in identity as well as negative affect have been shown to predict self-injurious and suicidal behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, less is known about the interactive effects of these two predictors. We examined the moderating effect of a particular component of identity, self-concept, on the relationship between negative affect and self-injurious urges utilizing ecological momentary assessments. Outpatients diagnosed with either BPD (n = 36) or any anxiety disorder but no BPD (n = 18) completed surveys throughout the day over a 21-day period. Higher levels of momentary negative affect predicted greater subsequent urges to self-injure, but only when self-concept clarity was low (z = -3.60, p < .01). This effect did not differ between diagnostic groups. The results suggest that self-concept clarity has a protective effect against self-injurious urges in light of high negative affect, and that this effect may be transdiagnostic.
Research Interests:
The purpose of the current study was to identify enduring dispositions as potential points of contact between social and clinical psychology, investigate trends in their use in clinical research over time, and evaluate their applicability... more
The purpose of the current study was to identify enduring dispositions as potential points of contact between social and clinical psychology, investigate trends in their use in clinical research over time, and evaluate their applicability to the social-clinical interface. In light ofthe "emerging symbiosis" between social and personality psychology (Snyder, 2006; Swann & Seyle, 2005) and the historically strong association between personality and clinical psychology, we hypothesized that individual differences in enduring dispositions could serve as points of contact that would help inform the evolving social-clinical interface and provide a focus for future interface research. The results of our study suggest that despite some lulls, enduring dispositions are consistent aspects of clinical research over the last 40 years and thus serve as an area of overlap and intersection between social and clinical psychology. Our results also suggest that while personality traits are the most widely studied enduring dispositions in clinical psychology, individual differences in cognitive and affective traits, and to a lesser extent, motivation traits, are also broadly applicable to all three interface sub-areas identified by Leary (1987). Results are discussed with reference to historical milestones in clinical psychology that have helped procure the relevance of enduring dispositions to the social-clinical interface.
Research Interests:
Experience sampling methods are widely used in clinical psychology to study affective dynamics in psychopathology. The present study examined whether affect ratings (valence and arousal) differed as a function of assessment schedule... more
Experience sampling methods are widely used in clinical psychology to study affective dynamics in psychopathology. The present study examined whether affect ratings (valence and arousal) differed as a function of assessment schedule (signal- versus event-contingent) in a clinical sample and considered various approaches to modeling these ratings. A total of 40 community mental health center outpatients completed ratings of their affective experiences over a 21-day period using both signal-contingent schedules (random prompts) and event-contingent schedules (ratings following social interactions). We tested whether assessment schedules impacted 1) the central tendency (mean) and variability (standard deviation) of valence or arousal considered individually, 2) the joint variability in valence and arousal via the entropy metric, and 3) the between-person differences in configuration of valence-arousal landscapes via the Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD) metric. We found that event-contingent schedules, relative to signal-contingent schedules, captured higher average levels of pleasant valence and emotional arousal ratings. Moreover, signal-contingent schedules captured greater variability within and between individuals on arousal-valence landscapes compared to event-contingent schedules. Altogether, findings suggest that the two assessment schedules should not be treated interchangeably in the assessment of affect over time. Researchers must be cautious in generalizing results across studies utilizing different experience sampling assessment schedules.
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Learning how to conduct clinically meaningful and actionable research while simultaneously training to be a competent clinician may be an optimal way to develop an early attachment to the scientific-practitioner model. In this paper, the... more
Learning how to conduct clinically meaningful and actionable research while simultaneously training to be a competent clinician may be an optimal way to develop an early attachment to the scientific-practitioner model. In this paper, the transformation of a training clinic into a practice research network (PRN) is presented as a strategy to foster a seamless integration of clinical, training, and research facets of graduate training in psychology. With the hope of providing helpful guidance to trainers and trainees interested in building such an infrastructure, the authors describe the context in which they developed their training clinic PRN, its major components, and some of the studies that have been conducted in this network. Benefits earned and lessons learned (in terms of obstacles faced and strategies implemented to deal with them) are described, as well as general recommendations and future directions regarding the implementation and impact of training clinic PRNs.
Research Interests:
In this study, we addressed the heterogeneity in interpersonal problems across patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We assessed interpersonal problems by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-C; Horowitz, Alden,... more
In this study, we addressed the heterogeneity in interpersonal problems across patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We assessed interpersonal problems by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-C; Horowitz, Alden, Wiggins, &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Pincus, 2000) in a sample of 78 GAD patients. We used IIP-C profiles describing interpersonal characteristics of the total GAD sample as well as clustered GAD interpersonal subtypes. Although the overall sample was located in the friendly submissive quadrant of the circumplex model, this was true only for the Exploitable cluster, which includes more than 50% of the patients. Importantly, clusters of GAD patients with other locations reporting predominantly Cold, Nonassertive, or Intrusive interpersonal problems were also identified. The 4 clusters did not differ in terms of gender, comorbid disorders, or the severity of depression or anxiety. Thus, the assessment of interpersonal problems provides additional diagnostic information covering the heterogeneity of GAD patients. This information could be used for differential indication and individual case formulation in GAD.
Research Interests: Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Psychometrics, Personality, Personality Assessment, and 15 moreMedicine, Germany, Humans, Personality Assessment Inventory, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, United States, Cluster Analysis, Differential Diagnosis, Interpersonal Relations, Middle Aged, Adult, Reproducibility of Results, Psychological Models, Personality Inventory, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Interpersonal problems are highly relevant to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients. Previous studies using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems identified several interpersonal subtypes in GAD patients. In this... more
Interpersonal problems are highly relevant to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients. Previous studies using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems identified several interpersonal subtypes in GAD patients. In this study, we wanted to replicate earlier findings of interpersonal subtypes in GAD. We investigated whether these interpersonal subtypes are characterized by different types of interpersonal problems and different levels of interpersonal distress, and we further examined whether they differed with regard to improvement of interpersonal problems after short-term treatment. This study is based on results from a randomized controlled trial that investigated short-term treatments in GAD outpatients. For secondary analysis, interpersonal subtypes were identified by cluster analysis and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems profiles were calculated for both the total sample (N = 52) and the interpersonal subtypes using the Structural Summary Method for Circumplex Data. This study confirmed previous results demonstrating the existence of interpersonal subtypes in GAD. Four interpersonal subtypes were identified: Overly Nurturant, Intrusive, Socially Avoidant, and Nonassertive. Short-term treatment significantly improved interpersonal problems (d = 0.46) within the total GAD sample. Interestingly, the effect sizes of the four clusters differed considerably (d = 0.19-1.24) and the clusters displayed different changes in the two circumplex axes Dominance and Nurturance. Our study indicates that change of interpersonal problems needs to be specifically analyzed, even within homogenous diagnostic groups.
Research Interests: Psychology, Brief Psychotherapy, Anxiety Disorders, Psychotherapy, Adolescent, and 15 moreHumans, Personality Assessment Inventory, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Effect size, Female, Male, Cluster Analysis, Interpersonal Relations, Aged, Middle Aged, Pilot study, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Pilot Projects, and Personality Inventory
Current symptom-based diagnosis, although important, lacks theoretical underpinning that might give meaning to psychiatric symptoms. The structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) fills this void, operationalizing interpersonal theory... more
Current symptom-based diagnosis, although important, lacks theoretical underpinning that might give meaning to psychiatric symptoms. The structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) fills this void, operationalizing interpersonal theory for investigation of relational aspects of psychopathology. To provide an example of how SASB may be utilized to this end, participants with (n = 40) and without (n = 40) uncontrollable worry and anxiety completed SASB Intrex Questionnaires to explore self-perceptions and perceptions of strangers in a social interaction task. Based on SASB principles and past research on familial factors in childhood anxiety, it was hypothesized that self- and other perceptions would discriminate participant groups along the lines of disrupted and normal attachment. To demonstrate the versatility of SASB, analyses incorporated indexes of varying specificity. Largely, results supported predictions, suggesting the sensitivity of SASB Intrex to assess social perception...
Research Interests: Psychology, Assessment, Psychometrics, Personality Assessment, Psychopathology, and 15 moreInteraction, Adolescent, Interpersonal Relationship, Anxiety, Humans, Business and Management, Personality Assessment Inventory, Female, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Adult, ANXIETY, Reference Values, Object Attachment, and Personality Inventory
Summary: The increasing interest in adult attachment concepts in social, personality, and clinical psychology has led to the proliferation of multiple self-report measures operationalizing such constructs as they are reflected in a... more
Summary: The increasing interest in adult attachment concepts in social, personality, and clinical psychology has led to the proliferation of multiple self-report measures operationalizing such constructs as they are reflected in a variety of related conceptual models. Recent investigations of adult attachment measures indicate they generally converge in providing rather global information regarding the general positive or negative quality of enduring bonds with primary caregivers during the adult years or the general positive or negative quality of relational style individuals exhibit in the formation of new relationships. Benjamin and her colleagues proposed an integration of interpersonal and attachment theories based on Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) to improve precision of adult attachment assessment. They suggested that the addition of SASB-based interpersonal descriptors would improve the utility of attachment concepts in assessment and relational diagnosis. Two studies were conducted to evaluate these propositions by examining the convergent relations between childhood parental representations assessed by the SASB Intrex questionnaires and two measures of adult attachment constructs. Results of both studies supported predicted convergence between SASB dimensions and attachment constructs. Fearful and preoccupied adult attachment styles, perceptions of rejecting early attachment, and current angry and dismissive states of mind toward the caregiver are negatively related to SASB affiliation. Perceptions of enmeshed early attachment is negatively related to SASB autonomy. The addition of interpersonal descriptors to the assessment of global attachment constructs adds precision to the description of “internal working models,” increasing sophistication of attachment concepts for relational diagnosis and assessment. A framework for integrated attachment/interpersonal assessment is discussed and examples are provided.
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BackgroundAlthough relations between depressive and narcissistic pathologies have been proposed in both psychoanalytic and phenomenological literatures, empirical research generally fails to confirm this link. Common measures of... more
BackgroundAlthough relations between depressive and narcissistic pathologies have been proposed in both psychoanalytic and phenomenological literatures, empirical research generally fails to confirm this link. Common measures of narcissism, however, emphasize grandiose rather than vulnerable traits, and include both adaptive and maladaptive features. We therefore assessed the relation between narcissistic personality and depressive temperament (DT) using a recently developed measure designed
Research Interests: Psychometrics, Depression, Students, Humans, Affective Disorders, and 15 morePersonality Assessment Inventory, Questionnaire, Female, Narcissism, Male, Temperament, Universities, Empirical Research, Risk factors, Self Concept, Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Personality Inventory, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests:
This study examined two conceptions of perfectionism in relation to interpersonal problems. Two hundred and seventy-nine undergraduate participants completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) and the Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale... more
This study examined two conceptions of perfectionism in relation to interpersonal problems. Two hundred and seventy-nine undergraduate participants completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) and the Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale (DAPS). The authors used empirically derived discriminant functions (APS-R) and cluster analysis (DAPS) to identify three groups for both measures: adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists. Analyses of group profiles were performed on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex (IIP-C) scales using the structural summary method for circumplex data. APS-R and DAPS groups were compared on interpersonal problems endorsement and IIP-C profile characteristics. For both measures, results supported the hypotheses that maladaptive perfectionists would exhibit elevated profiles reflecting hostile-dominant and friendly-submissive interpersonal problems, whereas the adaptive perfectionists would exhibit low profile elevation indicative of interpersonal adjustment. Overall, results supported Slaney and colleagues’ (2001) model of perfectionism and provided evidence for the validity of the APS-R and DAPS.
Research Interests: Psychology, Assessment, Personality Disorders, Medicine, Interpersonal Relationship, and 15 moreMultivariate Analysis, Humans, Models, Business and Management, Evaluation methods, Female, Male, Cluster Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Interpersonal Relations, Questionnaires, Self Assessment, Adult, Psychological Models, and Discriminant Function
Research Interests:
Concurrent and lagged maternal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was monitored in the context of parenting. One hundred and forty-one preschooler-mother dyads-involved with child welfare as documented perpetrators of child abuse or... more
Concurrent and lagged maternal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was monitored in the context of parenting. One hundred and forty-one preschooler-mother dyads-involved with child welfare as documented perpetrators of child abuse or neglect, or non-maltreating (non-CM)-were observed completing a resting baseline and joint challenge task. Parenting behaviors were coded using SASB (Benjamin, 1996) and maternal RSA was simultaneously monitored, longitudinally-nested within-person (WP), and subjected to MLM. Abusive and neglectful mothers displayed less positive parenting and more strict/hostile control, relative to non-CM mothers. Non-CM mothers displayed greater WP heterogeneity in variance over time in their RSA scores, and greater consistency over time in their parenting behaviors, relative to abusive or neglectful mothers. CM group also moderated concurrent and lagged WP associations in RSA and positive parenting. When abusive mothers displayed lower RSA in a given epoch, relative ...
Human development is characterized by the complex interplay of processes that manifest at multiple levels of analysis and time-scales. We introduce the Intraindividual Study of Affect, Health and Interpersonal Behavior (iSAHIB) as a model... more
Human development is characterized by the complex interplay of processes that manifest at multiple levels of analysis and time-scales. We introduce the Intraindividual Study of Affect, Health and Interpersonal Behavior (iSAHIB) as a model for how multiple time-scale study designs facilitate more precise articulation of developmental theory. Combining age heterogeneity, longitudinal panel, daily diary, and experience sampling protocols, the study made use of smartphone and web-based technologies to obtain intensive longitudinal data from 150 persons age 18-89 years as they completed three 21-day measurement bursts (t = 426 bursts, t = 8,557 days) wherein they provided reports on their social interactions (t = 64,112) as they went about their daily lives. We illustrate how multiple time-scales of data can be used to articulate bioecological models of development and the interplay among more &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;distal&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; processes that manifest at &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;slower&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; time-scales (e.g., age-related differences and burst-to-burst changes in mental health) and more &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;proximal&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; processes that manifest at &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;faster&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; time-scales (e.g., changes in context that progress in accordance with the weekly calendar and family influence processes).
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... during intake interviews. On the basis of this material, the authors constructed the first 127–item version of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; Horowitz, Rosenberg, Baer, Ureño, &amp;amp;amp;amp; Villaseñor, 1988).... more
... during intake interviews. On the basis of this material, the authors constructed the first 127–item version of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; Horowitz, Rosenberg, Baer, Ureño, &amp;amp;amp;amp; Villaseñor, 1988). Alden, Wiggins, &amp;amp;amp;amp; ...
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Research Interests: Psychodrama, Psychotherapy, Psychometrics, Personality Assessment, Prediction, and 15 moreEvolution, Humans, Personality Assessment Inventory, Female, Male, Interpersonal Relations, Assertiveness, Questionnaires, Adult, Prognosis, Reproducibility of Results, Predictive value of tests, Personality Inventory, interpersonal relation, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
The purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Personality Disorders is to promote the integration of personality structure and dynamics towards more evidence-based and clinically useful conceptualizations of personality pathology.... more
The purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Personality Disorders is to promote the integration of personality structure and dynamics towards more evidence-based and clinically useful conceptualizations of personality pathology. In this article, we describe a contemporary model of personality structure that is useful for distinguishing patients from one another and the connections between this structure and within-person dynamics that occur across different levels of an individual personality, across situations, and within situations. In so doing, we connect the personality trait tradition that has tended to emphasize stable individual differences with traditions that have tended to focus on the more dynamic aspects of interpersonal behavior and emotional experience. We then introduce the empirical articles in this special issue within this integrative context, in order to demonstrate the value in connecting personality structure to dynamics for research and practice.
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Deficits in identity as well as negative affect have been shown to predict self-injurious and suicidal behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, less is known about the interactive effects of these two... more
Deficits in identity as well as negative affect have been shown to predict self-injurious and suicidal behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, less is known about the interactive effects of these two predictors. We examined the moderating effect of a particular component of identity, self-concept, on the relationship between negative affect and self-injurious urges utilizing ecological momentary assessments. Outpatients diagnosed with either BPD (n = 36) or any anxiety disorder but no BPD (n = 18) completed surveys throughout the day over a 21-day period. Higher levels of momentary negative affect predicted greater subsequent urges to self-injure, but only when self-concept clarity was low (z = ?3.60, p < .01). This effect did not differ between diagnostic groups. The results suggest that self-concept clarity has a protective effect against self-injurious urges in light of high negative affect, and that this effect may be transdiagnostic.