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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a diagnosis characterized by intense and labile emotion; dialectical behavior therapy, a common treatment for BPD, aims to reduce the intensity and lability of clients' emotion through multiple methods, some of which occur in the therapy session, with the expectation that changes will generalize to the rest of clients' lives. However, little research has examined how BPD clients' affect presents and varies in session or whether affect in session reflects patients' patterns of affect outside of treatment. This study had 2 aims: (a) to explore changes in clients' positive and negative affect in therapy, and (b) to assess if the severity of client psychopathology relates to affect in treatment. Positive and negative affect ratings were collected from clients (N ϭ 73) at the start and end of every individual therapy session (total sessions ϭ 1,474). Hierarchical linear modeling and linear regression were used to examine patterns of affect and assess the relationship between affect and severity. Results indicated that positive affect increased while negative affect decreased between the start and end of sessions, with the same pattern of change in presession affect from week to week. In addition, increased BPD severity was associated with lower presession positive affect ratings and higher negative affect ratings. Further exploration is needed to assess which dialectical behavior therapy treatment processes contribute to changes in in-session affect and how in-session affect relates to treatment outcomes.

Introduction: The prediction of affective experiences, also known as affective forecasting, is an integral component of individuals’ decision-making processes. Yet, research consistently demonstrates that affective forecasts (AF) and recollections (AR) are generally inaccurate. Recent research has demonstrated distinct patterns of AF/R bias related to psychopathology. This study examined the relationship between AF/R and features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), anxiety, and depression using Valentine's Day as the target event. Methods: Undergraduate students (N=263; 33% white; 63% female; Mage=19.08) predicted their affective states a week before, and then reported their actual affective states on Valentine's Day and the two days after, and recalled Valentine's Day affect two days later. Results: Results indicate that higher BPD symptomatology predicted a significant overestimation of negative affect (B=.17, p=.02), even after controlling for anxiety and depression. Additionally, individuals’ levels of depressive, anxious, and BPD symptomatology were significant predictors of AF of positive affect when entered into regression analyses separately, however when entered together, only depressive symptoms remained significant. Specifically, higher depressive symptoms predicted a significant underestimation of positive affect (B= −.21, p=.01). Discussion: Results were in line with prior research indicating that unique patterns of AF biases are associated with symptoms of psychopathology. However, results failed to support prior research linking AR biases to symptoms of psychopathology. Implications for future studies of affective biases and psychopathology more generally are discussed.

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