An experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder

Despite the prominent role of emotion dysregulation in theoretical accounts of borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have examined emotion dysregulation in BPD. This study extends extant research by providing an experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation among outpatients with BPD. Specifically, this study modified an experimental measure of distress tolerance to examine differences between outpatients with BPD (n = 17) and those without a personality disorder (n = 18) in 2 aspects of emotion dysregulation: (a) the unwillingness to experience emotional distress in order to pursue goal-directed behavior and (b) the inability to engage in goal-directed behavior when distressed. As hypothesized, BPD participants were less willing to experience distress in order to pursue goal-directed behavior. However, BPD participants did not evidence greater difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when distressed. Results highlight directions for future research and suggest that particular aspects of emotion dysregulation may be more or less relevant to BPD.     

Metamorphosis: Essence, appearance, and behavior in the categorization of natural kinds

The transformation paradigm (Rips, 1989) was used to contrast causal homeostasis and strict essentialist beliefs about biological kinds. Participants read scenarios describing animals that changed their appearance and behavior through either accidental mutation or developmental maturation and then rated the animals on the basis of similarity, typicality, and category membership both before and after the change. Experiment 1 in the present study replicated the dissociation of typicality and categorization reported by Rips (1989) but also revealed systematic individual differences in categorization. With typicality and membership ratings collected between participants, however, Experiment 2 found no evidence for the dissociation and few essentialist responders. In Experiment 3, excluding information about offspring led most participants to categorize on the basis of appearance and behavior alone. However, with offspring information included and with questioning focused on the change of kind, essentialist categorization was still surprisingly rare. We conclude that strict essentialist categorization in the transformation task is relatively rare and highly task dependent, and that categorization is more commonly based on causal homeostasis.     

Making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning

Speakers routinely gesture with their hands when they talk, and those gestures often convey information not found anywhere in their speech. This information is typically not consciously accessible, yet it provides an early sign that the speaker is ready to learn a particular task (S. Goldin-Meadow, 2003). In this sense, the unwitting gestures that speakers produce reveal their implicit knowledge. But what if a learner was forced to gesture? Would those elicited gestures also reveal implicit knowledge and, in so doing, enhance learning? To address these questions, the authors told children to gesture while explaining their solutions to novel math problems and examined the effect of this manipulation on the expression of implicit knowledge in gesture and on learning. The authors found that, when told to gesture, children who were unable to solve the math problems often added new and correct problem-solving strategies, expressed only in gesture, to their repertoires. The authors also found that when these children were given instruction on the math problems later, they were more likely to succeed on the problems than children told not to gesture. Telling children to gesture thus encourages them to convey previously unexpressed, implicit ideas, which, in turn, makes them receptive to instruction that leads to learning.     

Using vision and dynamic touch to perceive the affordances of tools

The information that people use to perceive whether a tool is suitable for a certain task depends on what is available at a given time. Visually scanning a tool and wielding it each provide information about the functional attributes of the tool. In experiment 1, we investigated the relative contributions of vision and dynamic touch to perceiving the suitability of various tools for various tasks. The results show that, when both vision and dynamic touch are available, the visual information dominates. When limited to dynamic touch, ratings of suitability are constrained by the inertial properties of the tool, and the inertial properties that are exploited depend on the task. In experiment 2, we asked whether the manner in which a tool is manipulated in exploration depends on the task for which it is being evaluated. The results suggest that tools are manipulated in ways that reflect intentions to perceive particular affordances. Exploratory movements sometimes mimic performatory movements.     

A Preliminary Examination of the Role of Emotion Differentiation in the Relationship Between Borderline Personality and Urges for Maladaptive Behaviors

Impulsive, maladaptive, and potentially self-damaging behaviors are a hallmark feature of borderline personality (BP) pathology. Difficulties with emotion regulation have been implicated in both BP pathology and maladaptive behaviors. One facet of emotion regulation that may be particularly important in the relation between BP pathology and urges for maladaptive behaviors is emotion differentiation. Over 1 day, 84 participants high (n?=?34) and low (n?=?50) in BP pathology responded to questions regarding state emotions and urges to engage in maladaptive behaviors using handheld computers, in addition to a measure of emotion-related difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors. Results revealed that individuals high in BP pathology reported greater emotion-related impulsivity as well as daily urges to engage in maladaptive behaviors. However, the association between BP group and both baseline emotion-related impulsivity and daily urges for maladaptive behaviors was strongest among individuals who had low levels of positive emotion differentiation. Conversely, negative emotion differentiation did not significantly moderate the relationships between BP group and either emotion-related difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors or state urges for maladaptive behaviors. Limitations to the present study include the reliance upon an analogue sample and the relatively brief monitoring period. Despite limitations, these results suggest that, among individuals with high BP pathology, the ability to differentiate between positive emotions may be a particularly important target in the reduction of maladaptive behaviors.     

A Network Perspective on the Processes of Empowered Organizations

Organizational empowerment is a multi-faceted concept that involves processes occurring both within and between organizations that facilitate achievement of their goals. This paper takes a closer look at three interorganizational processes that lead to empowered organizations: building alliances, getting the word out, and capturing others’ attention. These processes are located within the broader nomological network of empowerment and organizational empowerment, and are linked to particular patterns of interorganizational relationships that facilitate organizations’ ability to engage in them. A new network-based measure, γ-centrality, is introduced to capture the particular network structure associated with each process to be assessed. It is demonstrated first in a hypothetical organizational network, then applied to take a closer look at organizational empowerment in the context of a coordinating council composed of human service agencies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of relationships between these processes, and the potential for unintended consequences in the empowerment of organizations.     

Behavioral Gerontology Research: Where are the Male Participants?

It has been reported that females are underrepresented in several areas of psychological research, which may have significant clinical and theoretical implications. No one has reported, however, whether women are underrepresented in behavioral gerontology research. To make this determination we recorded the gender of participants in behavioral gerontology studies published in six journals. In 129 published studies that included older adults (i.e. people 55 or more years of age) there were a total of 3070 participants, and most (69%) were female. Underrepresentation of men is significant insofar as treatment effects are sometimes gender specific, making it inappropriate to generalize results from females to males (or vice versa). Moreover, underrepresentation of older men suggests that their behavioral needs may not be generating the attention they deserve. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Practical Matters and Ultimate Concerns, “Doing,” and “Being”: A Diary Study of the Chaplain's Role in the Care of the Seriously Ill in an Urban Acute Care Hospital

Systematic observational studies of the chaplain's role and function in the secular health‐care setting are few. With an episode‐based diary recorded on handheld digital tablets, palliative care chaplains at a large urban hospital with a diverse patient population recorded details of patient visits in near‐real time. Cluster analysis revealed groups of activities we called "doing" and "being," and conversation topics of "practical matters" and "ultimate concerns”; chaplains were most satisfied with visits that involved all of these. Chaplains offer patients and families a space to express significant concerns; however, visits with spiritual or religious activities or topics were relatively rare. Broad quality of life concerns are central to the evolving professional role of chaplains in the secular setting of the modern hospital.     

Mortality salience,self‐esteem,and defense of the group: mediating role of in‐group identification

Numerous studies have shown that mortality salience strengthens defense of cultural institutions and that this effect is buffered by self‐esteem. The present study examines a novel prediction, based on social identity processes, that group identification mediates the impact of the interaction of mortality salience and self‐esteem on worldview defense. Self‐esteem and mortality salience were manipulated using Greenberg and colleagues' standard methods, the dependent measure was defense of America, and the mediating variable was identification with America. As predicted, mortality salience only increased identification with America and defense of America when self‐esteem was not enhanced, enhancing self‐esteem attenuated the effects of mortality salience. Also following predictions, the interactive effect of mortality salience and self‐esteem on defense of America was mediated by identification with America.     

Interpersonal Assessment of Borderline Personality Disorder: Preliminary Findings

We examined the reliability and validity of scores on an interpersonal measure of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Ratings on the Interpersonal Measure of Borderline Personality Disorder (IM–B) were based on nonverbal behaviors and interpersonal interactions occurring during clinical interviews with 276 adults. Scores on the IM–B exhibited good reliability. IM–B scores also displayed expected patterns of associations with scores on other measures of BPD, as well as with scores on measures of affective dysfunction, interpersonal pathology, and behavioral impairment associated with BPD, including indexes of maladaptive emotion regulation, interpersonal sensitivity, and self-harm. The pattern of associations for IM–B scores was quite similar to what would be expected for a dimensional measure of BPD symptoms. Scores on the IM–B were also associated with symptoms of disorders generally comorbid with BPD. Finally, IM–B scores contributed incrementally to the prediction of interpersonal dysfunction and suicidal ideation and behavior. Discussion focuses on implications for the assessment of BPD.