Possible selves and borderline personality disorder

Although clinical theories suggest that people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) experience a confused sense of self, little empirical research has directly examined the self in BPD (Heard & Linehan, 1993; Westen & Cohen, 1993). In this study, 43 female participants, 15 with BPD and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical psychology 2006-03, Vol.62 (3), p.387-394
Main Authors: Janis, Irene Belle, Veague, Heather Barnett, Driver-Linn, Erin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Borderline Personality Disorder - diagnosis
Borderline Personality Disorder - psychology
Ego
Female
Humans
Imagination
Internal-External Control
Interview, Psychological
Medical sciences
Mental disorders
Middle Aged
Personality
Personality disorders
Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data
Psychological Theory
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reference Values
Self Concept
Set (Psychology)
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:Although clinical theories suggest that people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) experience a confused sense of self, little empirical research has directly examined the self in BPD (Heard & Linehan, 1993; Westen & Cohen, 1993). In this study, 43 female participants, 15 with BPD and 28 without BPD, completed the closed‐ended version of Markus and Wurf's (1987) Possible Selves Questionnaire (PSQ). Participants with BPD were less likely than controls to endorse positive possible selves as current, but more likely to endorse negative possible selves as current, probable, desired, and important. Participants with BPD linked negative and positive selves to their desired selves, which is consistent with the unstable sense of self characteristic of BPD. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 62: 387–394, 2006.
ISSN:0021-9762
1097-4679
DOI:10.1002/jclp.20230