Negative self-conscious emotions in women with borderline personality disorder as assessed by an Implicit Association Test

TY - JOUR

T1 - Negative self-conscious emotions in women with borderline personality disorder as assessed by an Implicit Association Test

AU - Spitzer, Carsten

AU - Jelinek, Lena

AU - Baumann, Erik

AU - Benecke, Cord

AU - Schmidt, Alexander F.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 American Psychological Association

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Shame and guilt are vital in borderline personality disorder (BPD), and previous research using explicit measures has consistently found elevated levels of these self-conscious emotions (SCE) in those with BPD. However, these measures cannot elucidate implicit processes that are equally important, as they guide the perceptions of the self and influence behavioral responses. Thus, we aimed to extend the research on SCE in BPD utilizing an indirect latency-based measure. A total of 29 female inpatients with BPD and 21 healthy women were assessed with a shame and a guilt self-concept Implicit Association Test (IAT). These two tasks use reaction time measurements to determine the relative strengths of associations between the self versus others and shame versus pride and guilt versus innocence. In addition, participants completed questionnaires capturing shame, guilt, and BPD symptoms. Women with BPD displayed significantly more shame- and guilt-prone implicit self-concepts than the control group (d = 1.2 and d = 0.7, respectively). They also scored significantly higher on explicit measures of shame and guilt. Although explicitly and implicitly assessed shame and guilt were strongly associated with borderline pathology, multivariate models indicated that solely self-reported, but not implicitly measured, guilt was consistently related to all BPD outcomes. Shame was only associated with the number of BPD criteria. This study extends previous findings on SCE in BPD, in that women with BPD do not only explicitly conceive themselves as more shame- and guilt-prone but also exhibit implicitly more shame and guilt self-concepts than healthy controls. Our results may hold clinical and therapeutic implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

AB - Shame and guilt are vital in borderline personality disorder (BPD), and previous research using explicit measures has consistently found elevated levels of these self-conscious emotions (SCE) in those with BPD. However, these measures cannot elucidate implicit processes that are equally important, as they guide the perceptions of the self and influence behavioral responses. Thus, we aimed to extend the research on SCE in BPD utilizing an indirect latency-based measure. A total of 29 female inpatients with BPD and 21 healthy women were assessed with a shame and a guilt self-concept Implicit Association Test (IAT). These two tasks use reaction time measurements to determine the relative strengths of associations between the self versus others and shame versus pride and guilt versus innocence. In addition, participants completed questionnaires capturing shame, guilt, and BPD symptoms. Women with BPD displayed significantly more shame- and guilt-prone implicit self-concepts than the control group (d = 1.2 and d = 0.7, respectively). They also scored significantly higher on explicit measures of shame and guilt. Although explicitly and implicitly assessed shame and guilt were strongly associated with borderline pathology, multivariate models indicated that solely self-reported, but not implicitly measured, guilt was consistently related to all BPD outcomes. Shame was only associated with the number of BPD criteria. This study extends previous findings on SCE in BPD, in that women with BPD do not only explicitly conceive themselves as more shame- and guilt-prone but also exhibit implicitly more shame and guilt self-concepts than healthy controls. Our results may hold clinical and therapeutic implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

KW - borderline personality disorder (BPD)

KW - guilt

KW - Implicit Association Test (IAT)

KW - self-conscious emotions (SCE)

KW - shame

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103493298&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/per0000467

DO - 10.1037/per0000467

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85103493298

VL - 12

SP - 456

EP - 465

JO - PERSONAL DISORD

JF - PERSONAL DISORD

SN - 1949-2715

IS - 5

ER -