Date of Graduation
12-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Psychological Science
Advisor/Mentor
Veilleux, Jennifer
Committee Member
Levine, Bill
Second Committee Member
Robinson, Samantha
Third Committee Member
Terhune, Claire
Abstract
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and nearly everyone who attempts suicide engages in ideation. Suicidal ideation varies over time and across contexts, indicating the need to untangle the interaction of momentary processes associated with ideation. We predict that people will experience increased ideation in moments of emotional pain when they engage in self-criticism. Moreover, people with differing interpersonal motives, such as that of agency (i.e., valuing competence at tasks deemed important to one’s self-worth) and communion (i.e., valuing the degree of closeness in one’s relationships) may be prompted to self-criticize in moments where these motives are of more importance. Thus, those high in different motives may differ in how their self-criticism prompts increased momentary ideation.
In the current study, we assessed the effects of self-criticism on momentary suicidal ideation in people (n = 31) exhibiting features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) via ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Participants completed measures of affect, self-criticism, and both passive and active suicidal ideation 5x/day for 14 days via a mobile application. In addition, participants were asked questions regarding interpersonal concerns of agency (i.e., perceptions of impaired competence) and communion (i.e., importance of interpersonal relationships). We found that, (a) higher self-criticism than usual was associated with higher suicidal ideation, (b) higher importance of communion than usual was associated with higher suicidal ideation when negative affect was high, and (c) the association between negative affect and self-criticism in predicting suicidal ideation was higher when importance of communion was higher than usual.
Keywords
suicidal ideation; ecological momentary assessment; borderline personality disorder; self-criticism; interpersonal motives; personality disorders
Citation
Dennis, E. (2023). How self-criticism predicts momentary suicidal ideation differently for overcontrolled and undercontrolled personality styles. Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/psycuht/68
