This article tested a contingency-oriented perspective to examine the dynamic relationships between in-the-moment borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptom events and in-the-moment triggers. An experience sampling study with 282 adults, including 77 participants with BPD, obtained reports of situational triggers and BPD symptom events five times daily for two weeks. Triggers included being rejected, betrayed, abandoned, offended, disappointed, having one’s self-concept threatened, being in a boring situation, and being alone. BPD was associated with increased situational triggers. Multilevel models revealed significant within-person associations between situational triggers and BPD symptoms for the average participant in the study, with significant individual variance in the strength and direction of trigger-symptom contingencies. Most trigger-symptom contingencies were stronger for individuals with higher borderline symptomatology, suggesting that triggers are meaningfully related to BPD. These findings highlight possible proximal mechanisms that maintain BPD and help explain the course of a disorder often described as chaotic and unpredictable.

The purpose of this article is to reveal whether traits can predict the core processes constituting borderline personality disorder (BPD). A large sample, including many with BPD, completed personality questionnaires and reported trigger and symptom experiences 5 times per day for 2 weeks. Multilevel modeling revealed first that symptoms were strongly contingent upon concurrent triggers and that BPD's association to symptoms was largely due to this contingency. Second, personality traits predicted all components of this process: trigger experiences, symptom intensity, and the contingency of the symptoms on triggers. However, normal personality traits only partially accounted for the heightened experience of triggers, elevated symptoms, and magnified reactivity to triggers among those with BPD. Thus, normal personality traits are capable of explaining the dynamic processes characteristic of clinical disorders, meaning that normal traits can elucidate even complex dynamic clinical processes. However, traits appear to only partially contain the active ingredients responsible for the core process in BPD. Aspects of the disorder other than traits may account for the heightened trigger experience, elevated symptom intensity, and magnified reactivity to triggers in those with BPD.

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