Self-criticism and dependency predict affective variability in borderline personality disorder: An ecological momentary assessment study.

Affective variability is a defining feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We hypothesize that patients with BPD who score higher on self-criticism and/or dependency-patients with a relative emphasis on self-definition and interpersonal relatedness, respectively-are characterized by more affective variability in positive and negative emotions. To examine this hypothesis, a sample of 32 patients with BPD reported their momentary feelings of anger, depression, anxiety, cheerfulness, and relaxation in an experience sampling study with 10 random signals scheduled per day for 8 days. Using heterogeneous linear mixed models, results indicate that patients with BPD who score higher on self-criticism show more within-person variance (WPV) in anger, depression, anxiety, cheerfulness, and feeling relaxed, whereas patients who score higher on dependency show more WPV in anger but less WPV in anxiety and feeling relaxed. Consequently, individual differences in affective variability in BPD are, after adjustment for the confounding between the mean and WPV of affect, related to personality vulnerabilities like self-criticism and dependency. These results add evidence to two-polarities models of personality and the existing view that there is substantial heterogeneity in BPD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).