EFFICACY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Efficacy of Psychotherapy on the Treatment of BPD

Acknowledgment

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my instructor who has the attitude and the substance of a genius: he continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure in regard to research and scholarship, and an excitement in regard to teaching. Without his guidance and persistent help this dissertation would not have been possible.

Abstract

Clinical psychologists have suggested that patients with Brderline personality Disorder (BPD) are unusually accurate at “reading” other people. We investigated this claim by obtaining measures of trait accuracy and empathic accuracy in 38 same-sex dyads, each composed of one high BPD and one low BPD member. At first glance, the results suggested that the high borderline dyad members displayed both better trait accuracy and better empathic accuracy. Additional analyses revealed, however, that these effects were instead a consequence of the high BPD participants having more unusual, harder-to-predict personalities and more difficult-to-infer thoughts and feelings than those of their low BPD counterparts. We conclude that the relative empathic advantage displayed by high BPD individuals does not reflect greater ability; instead, they are simply more difficult to “read” than low BPD individuals are.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT2

ABSTRACT3

TABLE OF CONTENTS4

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION6

1.1 Background of the study6

1.2 Purpose of the study7

1.3 Significance of the study7

1.4 Literature Search Strategy8

1.4.1 Electronic Databases Searched9

1.4.2 Literature search Profile9

1.6 Chapter summary10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW12

2.1 Background Review12

2.2 Psychotherapy13

2.3 Borderline Personality Disorder14

2.4 Other Interventions14

2.5. Aim of literature review15

2.6 Objectives of the study15

2.7. Chapter Summary16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY17

2. METHODS17

2.1. Participants17

2.2. Setting and equipment17

2.3. Personality rating scale (three versions)18

2.4. Procedure19

2.5. Collection of the personality self-ratings and the videotaped interaction data20

2.6. Collection of the thought/feeling data21

2.7. Collection of the empathic accuracy data22

2.8. Collection of the final self-report measure23

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS24

3. RESULTS24

3.1. Initial findings for the trait accuracy measure24

3.2. Tests of potential alternative interpretations25

3.3. Results for the empathic accuracy measure27

3.4. Possible alternative explanations28

3.5. Are high-BPD individuals more empathic or simply harder to “read”?30

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION34

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION37

REFERENCES40

APPENDIX45

Appendix A45

Appendix B47

Efficacy of Psychotherapy on the Treatment of BPD

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Borderline Personality Disorder commonly known as BPD is a mental disorder. People affected by BPD often experience stressful emotional states, trouble in linking to other people, and self-harming behaviour. Almost two and five per cent of the population are affected by BPD at some phase in their lives. General symptoms of the disorder usually appear out in early teenagers or in earlier adulthood. Women are three times more possible to be diagnosing with BPD than men. The causes of BPD are not completely understood. They are likely to be a mixture of biological and life factors. It is thought that many people with BPD have experience abuse, trauma or neglect during childhood, and that this may have contributed to progress of the disorder.

Historically, BPD has been considered to be a set of symptoms that encompass both feeling difficulties (neuroses) and distortions of truth (psychosis), and thus are considered to be on the borderline between feeling stress and ...