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AuthorT. Karlsson
TitleThe usefulness of the biosocial theory in understanding borderline personality disorder (BPD): The role of an invalidating environment, emotional vulnerability, and emotional dysregulation.
SupervisorS. Rietveld
Year2005
FacultyFaculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Institute/dept.FMG: Afdeling Psychologie
AbstractAbstract Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental disorder associated with behavioural, emotional, cognitive and interpersonal problems. This thesis focuses on three primary factors in BPD by examining the following question: To what extent do environmental invalidation, emotional vulnerability, and affective dysregulation, as they are defined by the biosocial theory, contribute to our understanding of borderline personality disorder? The findings presented in chapter two clearly indicated that various types of childhood traumas contribute to the development of borderline psychopathology. There are some contradictive studies regarding emotional vulnerability (presented in chapter three). However, self-reports made by individuals with BPD (features) showed that borderline symptoms were associated with high levels of affective instability. The literature contributing the basis of chapter four showed that emotional dysregulation was associated to BPD. Moreover, the results indicated that a specific emotional regulation strategy, i.e., thought suppression, exacerbated BPD symptoms in emotionally vulnerable individuals, and individuals coming from an invalidating environment. In conclusion, all three primary factors in BPD suggested by the biosocial theory seem to contribute to a deeper understanding of the development and maintenance of BPD. Future research should continue to explore specific affective dysregulation strategies like thought suppression, and also how different factors interact in order to get a more complex and integrated understanding of BPD.
Document type scriptie bachelor
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