Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Structural Examination of Negative Emotion Vulnerability

  • Published:
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study examined negative emotion vulnerability and its relationship to borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression, and anxiety symptoms. Emotion vulnerability has been described as a biological risk factor for BPD consisting of three components: heightened baseline emotional arousal, intense emotional reactivity to negative stimuli, and a slow return to baseline (Linehan 1993). However, few studies have fully examined negative emotion vulnerability as a three-factor construct. In addition, because there is reason to believe that BPD shares a common vulnerability factor with comorbid disorders, such as depression and anxiety, we also examined if heightened negative emotion vulnerability was related to those symptoms as well. A sample of 307 participants completed two mood induction tasks to assess all components of emotion vulnerability. Self-report questionnaires were also completed. Results confirmed a three-factor model of negative emotion vulnerability, with two factors, heightened baseline arousal and slow return to baseline emotion, uniquely predicting all symptoms. This study provides evidence for a trandiagnostic conceptualization of negative emotion vulnerability as descrbed by Linehan (1993).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This model was re-analyzed utilizing standardized residualized change scores instead of difference scores. The results of the confirmatory latent variable analysis did not differ substantially (χ2 (3) = 25.75, p < .001; CFI = .94; RMSEA (90% CI) = .16 (.11–.22; SRMR = .06), with factor loadings all within .1 of the original model.

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, M. A., Riniolo, T. C., & Porges, S. W. (2007). Borderline personality disorder and emotion regulation: Insights from the polyvagal theory. Brain & Cognition, 65, 69–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baschnagel, J. S., Coffey, S. F., Hawk, L. W., Jr., Schumacher, J. A., & Holloman, G. (2013). Psychophysiological assessment of emotional processing in patients with borderline personality disorder with and without comorbid substance use. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4(3), 203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohus, M., Limberger, M. F., Frank, U., Chapman, A. L., Kuhler, T., & Stieglitz, R. (2007). Psychometric properties of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL). Psychopathology, 40, 126–132.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bohus, M., Kleindienst, N., Limberger, M. F., Stieglitz, R., Domsalla, M., Chapman, A. L., et al. (2009). The short version of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23): Development and initial data on psychometric properties. Psychopathology, 42, 32–29.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brosschot, J. F., Gerin, W., & Thayer, J. F. (2006). The perseverative cognition hypothesis: A review of worry, prolonged stress-related physiological activation, and health. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 113–124.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bunford, N., Kujawa, A., Swain, J. E., Fitzgerald, K. D., Monk, C. S., & Phan, K. L. (2017). Attenuated neural reactivity to happy faces is associated with rule breaking and social problems in anxious youth. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 26(2), 215–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Button, K., Lewis, G., Penton-Voak, I., & Munafo, M. (2013). Social anxiety is associated with general but not specific biases in emotion regulation. Psychiatry Research, 210, 199–207.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bylsma, L. M., Morris, B. H., & Rottenberg, J. (2008). A meta-analysis of emotional reactivity in major depressive disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 676–691.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bylsma, L. M., Taylor-Clift, A., & Rottenberg, J. (2011). Emotional reactivity to daily events in major and minor depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(1), 155–167.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, J., & Shapiro, D. (2016). Conducting clinical research using crowdsources convenience samples. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, 53–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cisler, J. M., & Koster, E. H. (2010). Mechanisms of attentional biases toward threat in anxiety disorders: An integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2), 203–216.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Daros, A. R., Zakzanis, K. K., & Ruocco, A. C. (2013). Facial emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine, 43, 1953–1963.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Daros, A. R., Uliaszek, A. A., & Ruocco, A. C. (2014). Perceptual biases in facial emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5(1), 79–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domes, G., Czieschnek, D., Weidler, F., Berger, C., Fast, K., & Herperts, S. C. (2008). Recognition of facial affect in borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 22, 135–147.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dragan, M., Dragan, W. L., Konowoicz, T., & Wells, A. (2011). On the relationship between temperament, metacognition, and anxiety: Independent and mediated effects. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 25(6), 697–709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Badeck, S., Bechmann, C., Wagner, A., Fiege, B., Weiss, I., et al. (2005). Affective dysregulation and dissociative experience in female patients with borderline personality disorder: A startle response study. Journal of Psychiatry Research, 39, 85–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Shaw-Welch, S., Grossman, P., Reisch, T., Linehan, M. M., & Bohus, M. (2007). Psychophysiological ambulatory assessment of affective dsyregulation in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 150, 265–275.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Houben, M., Santangelo, P., Kleindienst, N., Tuerlinckx, F., Oravecz, Z., Verleysen, G., van Deun, K., Bohus, M., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Unraveling affective dysregulation in borderline personality disorder: A theoretical model and empirical evidence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(1), 186–198.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elices, M., Joaqium, S., Fernandez, C., Martin-Blanco, A., Portella, M. J., Pereze, V., et al. (2012). Physiological and self-assessed emotional responses to emotion-eliciting firms in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 200, 437–443.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, S., & Kuo, J. R. (2015). A comprehensive examination of delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 47, 51–59.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, J. P., Van Os, J., Mengelers, R., & Myin-Germeys, I. (2008). A momentary assessment study of the reputed emotional phenotype associated with borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine, 38, 1231–1239.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grant, B. F., Chou, S. P., Goldstein, R. B., Huang, B., Stinson, F. S., Saha, T. D., et al. (2008). Prevalence, correlates, disability and comorbidity of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder: Results from the wave 2 national epidemiological survey on alcohol and related conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 69, 533–545.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gratz, K. L., Rosenthal, M. Z., Tull, M. T., Lejuez, C. W., & Gunderson, J. G. (2010). An experimental investigation of emotional reactivity and delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder: The role of shame. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 51, 275–285.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Herpertz, S. C., Kunert, H. J., Schwenger, U. B., & Sass, H. (1999). Affective responsiveness in borderline personality disorder: A psychophysiological approach. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1550–1556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herpertz, S. C., Schwenger, U. B., Kunert, H. J., Lukas, G., Ulrich, G., Nutzmann, J., et al. (2000). Emotional responses in patients with borderline as compared with avoidant personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 14, 339–351.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jhung, K., Namkoong, K., Kang, J. I., Ha, R. Y., An, S. K., Kim, C., & Kim, S. J. (2009). Perception bias of disgust in ambiguous facial expressions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatry Research, 178, 126–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jovev, M., Chanen, A., Green, M., Cotton, S., Proffitt, T., Coltheart, M., & Jackson, H. (2011). Emotional sensitivity in youth with borderline personality pathology. Psychiatry Research, 187, 234–240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., Achenbach, T. M., Althoff, R. R., Bagby, R. M., Brown, T. A., Carpenter, W. T., Caspi, A., Clark, L. A., Eaton, N. R., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Goldberg, D., Hasin, D., Hyman, S. E., Ivanova, M. Y., Lynam, D. R., Markon, K., Miller, J. D., Moffitt, T. E., Morey, L. C., Mullins-Sweatt, S. N., Ormel, J., Patrick, C. J., Regier, D. A., Rescorla, L., Ruggero, C. J., Samuel, D. B., Sellbom, M., Simms, L. J., Skodol, A. E., Slade, T., South, S. C., Tackett, J. L., Waldman, I. D., Waszczuk, M. A., Widiger, T. A., Wright, A. G. C., & Zimmerman, M. (2017). The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): A dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126, 454–477.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuo, J. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2009). Disentangling emotion processes in borderline personality disorder: Physiological and self-reported assessment of biological vulnerability, baseline intensity, and reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 531–544.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, R. J. (1984). Theory and measurement of affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic. Dissertation Abstracts International, 85, 2297B.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linehan, M. M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linehan, M. M. (2014). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Litman, L., Robinson, J., & Abberbock, T. (2016). TurkPrime.com: A versatile crowdsourcing data acquision platform for the behavioral sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 49(2), 433–442.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335–343.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, T. R., Rosenthal, M. Z., Kosson, D. S., Cheavens, J. S., Lejuez, C. W., & Blair, R. J. R. (2006). Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder. Emotion, 6, 647–655.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, H. W., Wen, Z., & Hau, K. T. (2004). Structural equation models of latent interactions: Evaluation of alternative estimation strategies and indicator construction. Psychological Methods, 9, 275–300.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mezulis, A. H., Priess, H. A., & Hyde, J. S. (2011). Rumination mediates the relationship between infant temperament and adolescent depressive symptoms. Depression Research and Treatment, 2011, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Crowe, M., Weiss, B., Maples-Keller, J. J., & Lynam, D. R. (2017). Using online, crowdsourcing platforms for data collection in personality disorder research: The example of Amazon’s mechanical Turk. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 8(1), 26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montagne, B., Schutters, S., Westenberg, H. G. M., van Honk, J., Kessels, R. P. C., & de Haan, E. H. F. (2006). Reduced sensitivity in the recognition of anger and disgust in social anxiety disorder. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 11, 389–401.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moses, E. B., & Barlow, D. H. (2006). A new unified treatment approach for emotional disorders based on emotion science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(3), 146–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reiss, S. (1991). Expectancy model of fear, anxiety, and panic. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 141–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robin, M., Pham-Scottez, A., Curt, F., Dugre-Le Bigre, C., Speranza, M., Sapinho, D., et al. (2012). Decreased sensitivity to facial emotions in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 200(2–3), 417–421.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, J. (2005). Mood and emotion in major depression. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 167–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salomon, R., Clift, A., Karlsdottir, M., & Rottenberg, J. (2009). Major depressive disorder is associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity and impaired recovery among those free of cardiovascular disease. Health Psychology, 28, 157–165.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Santangelo, P., Limberger, M., Stiglmayr, C., Houben, M., Coosemans, J., Verleysen, G., et al. (2016). Analyzing subcomponents of affective dysregulation in borderline personality disorder in comparison to other clinical groups using multiple e-diary datasets. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 3(1), 5.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Scheel, C. N., Schneid, E.-M., Tuescher, O., Lieb, K., Tuschen-Caffier, B., & Jacob, G. A. (2013). Effects of shame induction in borderline personality disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(6), 1160–1168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmal, C. G., Elzinga, B. M., Ebner, U. W., Simms, T., Sanislow, C., Vermetten, E., et al. (2004). Psychophysiological reactivity to traumatic and abandonment scripts in borderline personality and posttraumatic stress disorders: A preliminary report. Psychiatry Research, 126, 33–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schulze, L., Domes, G., Koppen, D., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). Enhanced detection of emotional facial expressions in borderline personality disorder. Psychopathology, 46, 217–224.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwerdtfeger, A., & Rosenkaimer, A. (2011). Depressive symptoms and attenuated physiological reactivity to laboratory stressors. Biological Psychology, 87, 430–438.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, J. S., Forbes, E. E., Whalen, D. J., Jakubcak, J. L., Thompson, W. K., Ryan, N. D., et al. (2011). Daily emotional dynamics in depressed youth: A cell phone ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 241–257.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sprengelmeyer, R., Young, A. W., Pundt, I., Sprengelmeyer, A., Galder, A. J., Berrios, G., et al. (1997). Disgust implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 264, 1767–1733.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tomko, R. L., Trull, T. J., Wood, P. K., & Sher, K. J. (2014). Characteristics of borderline personality disorder in a community sample: Comorbidity, treatment utilization, and general functioning. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28(5), 734–750.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule-expanded form. Ames: The University of Iowa.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Amanda A. Uliaszek & Nadia Al-Dajani

Authors
  1. Amanda A. Uliaszek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nadia Al-Dajani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda A. Uliaszek.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Amanda A. Uliaszek and Nadia Al-Dajani declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Uliaszek, A.A., Al-Dajani, N. A Structural Examination of Negative Emotion Vulnerability. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 42, 178–189 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-019-09761-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-019-09761-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation