Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Southward - Dissertation.pdf (2.34 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Quality vs. Quantity: An Analysis of Skills Deficits Associated with Borderline Personality Disorder

Southward, Matthew Wayne
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5888-2769
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1557689562989802

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
One of the leading theories of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Linehan’s (1993) biosocial theory, posits that the problems associated with BPD (i.e., emotion dysregulation, poor interpersonal relationships, low distress tolerance) result, in part, from coping skills deficits. However, limited empirical evidence has been conducted to demonstrate the existence of or characterize the specific types of skill deficits in BPD. Previous researchers have examined the frequency with which people use both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies but, to date, there are no examinations of the quality of relevant skills among those with BPD. I developed a measure of coping skill quality (Dialectical Behavior Therapy – Ways of Responding Scale; DBT-WOR) that describes hypothetical stressful situations relevant to three domains of DBT skills (i.e., Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness) and asked participants to provide free response descriptions of how they would handle each situation. I tested this measure across two studies. In Study 1, I recruited 272 participants from a web-based platform (i.e., Amazon’s MTurk) who were oversampled for those elevated on BPD features and/or Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) symptoms. In Study 2, I recruited 90 participants in three groups: 30 healthy controls, 30 participants with MDD, and 30 participants with BPD, as assessed by an in-person structured diagnostic interview. Participants in both studies completed measures of DBT skill use frequency, DBT skill quality, general coping skill quality, and maladaptive response frequency to determine a) whether people with BPD demonstrated any skills deficits and b) whether these skills deficits were unique to BPD or general deficits associated with psychopathology/mood disorders. I found evidence that the DBT-WOR could be reliably rated by trained teams of undergraduate coders. When meta-analyzed across both studies, the results indicated that people with BPD exhibited two unique skills deficits, relative to those with MDD. Those with BPD reported using maladaptive coping responses more frequently than MDD or HC participants and they exhibited lower quality general coping strategies than MDD or HC participants. BPD and MDD participants both exhibited lower DBT skill quality and less frequent use of DBT skills than HC participants. These results provide the first direct evidence of deficits in skill quality in BPD and deepen our understanding of what specific skill deficits people with BPD may have.
Jennifer Cheavens, PhD (Advisor)
Daniel Strunk, PhD (Committee Member)
Robert Cudeck, PhD (Committee Member)
160 p.
Clinical Psychology
borderline personality disorder; major depressive disorder; emotion regulation; skill quality; mini-meta-analysis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Southward, M. W. (2019). Quality vs. Quantity: An Analysis of Skills Deficits Associated with Borderline Personality Disorder [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1557689562989802

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Southward, Matthew. Quality vs. Quantity: An Analysis of Skills Deficits Associated with Borderline Personality Disorder. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1557689562989802.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Southward, Matthew. "Quality vs. Quantity: An Analysis of Skills Deficits Associated with Borderline Personality Disorder." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1557689562989802

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1557689562989802
519
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.