Self‐esteem and other‐esteem in college students with borderline and avoidant personality disorder features: An experimental vignette study

Abstract

An experimental study investigated self-esteem and other-esteem responses to either fully supportive or less supportive interpersonal feedback in college students with avoidant and borderline personality disorder features (APD and BPD respectively). Disturbances in self-esteem and in evaluations of others are central to definitions of both APD and BPD, but the extent to which such interpersonal appraisals are responsive to contextual features, such as evaluative feedback from others, is not yet clear. In theory, we would expect that individuals with pronounced PD features would show more inflexible and more negative self-evaluations and others- evaluations than those without PD features. In this study with 169 undergraduates, APD but not BPD features were associated with other-contingent state self-esteem and other-esteem. A significant interaction indicated that highly avoidant respondents felt particularly negatively about themselves and their close others in situations that conveyed subtle criticism but not in situations signalling unequivocal support. This suggests that their self-esteem and other-esteem, rather than being rigidly negative, are instead highly contingent upon interpersonal feedback. Such context contingency has implications for the trait-like description of diagnostic characteristics within current taxonomies and is in line with contemporary dynamic models of personality structure and process.

Cognitive reactivity amplifies the activation and development of negative self-schema: A revised mnemic neglect paradigm and computational modelling

“…Similar changes were made in previous quantitative studies (Bowles et al, 2013). The internal consistency (Cronbach's α) of the borderline factor was .81, that of the narcissistic factor was .79 and that of the histrionic factor was .67.…”

Social feedback processing in borderline personality disorder

“…For updating of desirable feedback, no significant difference between BPD patients and healthy controls emerged. A previous report, which used vignettes, could not establish a relationship between BPD features in nonclinical participants and changes in self-esteem after supportive or critical feedback (Bowles et al 2013). Similarly, two further studies, which investigated the instability of self-evaluations in nonclinical participants with BPD features, found conflicting results (Tolpin et al 2004;Zeigler-Hill & Abraham, 2006).…”

Call to arms: Research directions to substantiate a unified model of attachment and personality pathology

“…Associations have consistently emerged between Dependent (r = 0.40), Histrionic (r = 0.37), Paranoid (r = 0.42) and Borderline (r = 0.67) PDs and attachment anxiety, as well as between Avoidant (r = 0.37), Schizoid (r = 0.30), Borderline (r = 0.30), and Antisocial (r = 0.14) PDs and attachment avoidance (Boldero et al, 2009;Bowles et al, 2013;De Smet et al, 2015;Elliot et al, 2014;Macdonald et al, 2013;Scott et al, 2009Scott et al, , 2013Smith & South, 2020). These correlations reflect phenomenological similarities between the constructs.…”