Previous research has suggested that patients meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) display altered self-related information processing. However, experimental studies on ...dysfunctional self-referential information processing in BPD are rare. In this study, BPD patients (N = 30) and healthy control participants (N = 30) judged positive, neutral, and negative words in terms of emotional valence. Referential processing was manipulated by a preceding self-referential pronoun, an other-referential pronoun, or no referential context. Subsequently, patients and participants completed a free recall and recognition task. BPD patients judged positive and neutral words as more negative than healthy control participants when the words had self-reference or no reference. In BPD patients, these biases were significantly correlated with self-reported attributional style, particularly for negative events, but unrelated to measures of depressive mood. However, BPD patients did not differ from healthy control participants in a subsequent free recall task and a recognition task. Our findings point to a negative evaluation bias for positive, self-referential information in BPD. This bias did not affect the storage of information in memory, but may be related to self-attributions of negative events in everyday life in BPD.
Abstract People's memory of past social encounters influences current social interactions. Social rejection has been shown to increase people's memory for social events particularly when referring to ...others rather than themselves. Social rejection and neglect often characterize biographies of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Using a social memory task, we investigated whether the evaluation and memory of social events is altered in BPD and whether this depends on reference to the self or others. 30 patients with BPD and 30 healthy controls evaluated the valence of positive, neutral, and negative standardized events, which were either social or nonsocial. Subsequently, participants had to recall these events. BPD patients evaluated social events of negative and neutral valence as more negative than healthy controls. Further, only BPD patients tended to preferentially recall self-referential social events. These findings suggest altered self-referential processing of social events that affects both the evaluation and the memory for social events.
Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) expect and perceive social rejection stronger than healthy individuals. Shifting ones attention from oneself to others has been suggested as a ...mechanism to deal with the experience of social rejection. Here, we investigated whether BPD participants avoid increased self-awareness and whether this is done intentionally.
Thirty BPD patients and 30 healthy control participants, all naïve of the study's purpose, were asked to choose either a seat facing a mirror (self-awareness) or not facing the mirror (avoidance of self-awareness). Afterwards they were asked to indicate if they have chosen the seat intentionally.
BPD patients avoided as a trend the chair facing the mirror more often than healthy control participants. 90 % of the patients reported that they made their seating decision intentionally in contrast to 26.7 % of the healthy participants (odd ratio = 24.75).
Results revealed altered reactions to self-awareness cues in BPD. While BPD patients avoided such a cue slightly more often, they were more often aware of their behavior than healthy participants. As possible explanations, a negative body related, shame-prone self-concept as well as a simultaneously increased degree of self-focused attention are suggested.
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