(PS7-55) Borderline Interpersonal Disorder? Examining the Interpersonal Profile of BPD

Introduction. According to interpersonal theorists, personality pathologies –such as borderline personality disorder (BPD)—display unique interpersonal signatures across axes of agency and communion (Hopwood, Pincus & Wright, 2021; Pincus & Ansell, 2003). For instance, those with BPD are colder and more dominant in social situations (Wilson, Stroud & Durbin, 2017). In our study, we examined the interpersonal profile of five BPD self-report measures: the MSI (Zanarini et al., 2003), PID-5-FBF-BPD (Maples et al., 2015), PAI-BOR (Morey, 1991), BSL-23 (Bohus et al., 2009), and the BEST (Pfohl et al., 2009). We hypothesized that these self-report measures of BPD will fall within the cold-dominant quadrant (Wilson, Stroud & Durbin, 2017).

Method. To locate each respective measure in the interpersonal circumplex space, we recruited a sample of undergraduate students (n = 879) and asked them to complete the circumplex scales of interpersonal problems (Boudreax et al., 2018). We then computed an interpersonal profile for each measure using the circumplex package in R (Girard, Zimmerman & Wright, 2024).

Results. Contrasting our hypothesis, high scorers across BPD measures were likely to fall in the cold-submissive quadrant, acting non-assertive and socially inhibited in social situations (displacement = 230.9 – 248.4). Nevertheless, the average association (i.e., elevation) between each BPD measure and area of interpersonal impairment was high (e = .45 - .50) with a low amplitude (a =.08 - .13; r²=.43 - .66).

Discussion.  These findings suggest that while high severity BPD is associated with broad interpersonal impairments (high elevation), there is no distinct interpersonal "style" that consistently characterizes BPD (low amplitude). This lack of a unique interpersonal signature may be due to the labile nature of BPD symptoms, which are difficult to capture using traditional trait-based models. For example, Russell et al. (2007) demonstrated that individuals with BPD frequently oscillate between dominant and submissive behaviors, a pattern that would not be adequately captured by static trait models. This instability in interpersonal behavior may render trait-based models of BPD unreliable. To address these issues in the future, researchers should push to model dynamic interpersonal processes using experience sampling which may better model the dynamic ways context contributes to the interpersonal problems associated with BPD.