Author ORCID Identifier:
Date of Graduation
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Psychological Science
Advisor/Mentor
Veilleux, Jennifer
Committee Member
Denise Beike
Second Committee Member
Jessica Fugitt
Third Committee Member
Matt Judah
Keywords
borderline personality; overcontrol; profiles
Abstract
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is conceptualized as a disorder of undercontrol (i.e., behaviorally impulsive, emotionally expressive), with affective, interpersonal, and identity instability. BPD related impairment is high, yet diagnostic accuracy remains a problem for individuals who present with greater overcontrol (i.e., behavioral inhibition, expressive suppression), which occurs in some BPD subtypes. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to expand on prior research by identifying latent profiles based on interpersonal motives for agency and relatedness, desire for predictability, perceived dependency, and self-efficacy in a sample of people with elevated BPD features (n = 136). Individual differences in overcontrol, undercontrol, and BPD features were used to identify patterns among latent classes of people, and to explore how trait overcontrol and undercontrol mapped onto momentary interpersonal styles. Multilevel modeling examined latent classes as moderators for the relationship between affective variability predicting emotion regulation. Five momentary interpersonal BPD profiles emerged, with one identified as overcontrolled, and none presenting as undercontrolled. Four latent classes of people emerged and individuals with the lowest overcontrol, undercontrol, and BPD features (GClass3) were most likely to exhibit an interpersonally overcontrolled profile (Profile 3). Compared to latent classes of people with higher levels of overcontrol, undercontrol, and BPD features, when feeling less positive than usual people in the lowest personality pathology group tended to use more intrapersonal emotion regulation, less interpersonal response seeking and responding, and more isolation. When feeling more negative than usual, they used more intrapersonal emotion regulation, more interpersonal response seeking and responding, and more isolation.
Citation
Schreiber, R. (2025). Using Interpersonal Motives to Identify Latent Profiles of Borderline Personality Pathology: Implications for an Overcontrolled Style of BPD. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/5868
