هوش هیجانی و اختلال شخصیت مرزی

This study explored the relationship between trait and ability emotional intelligence (EI) and Borderline personality disorder (BPD) criteria in 523 nonclinical adults. Ability EI was assessed using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and trait EI using the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). We assessed the four features of BPD identified by Morey (1991): affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships and self-harm, and each of the nine BPD DSM-IV (APA, 2000) criteria. Results suggested that persons with BPD traits are deficient in multiple aspects of trait EI (r = −.04 to −.70), but especially management of one’s emotions. For ability EI effect sizes were smaller (r = .01 to −.36). As expected, poor emotion management ability was important in BPD, and was negatively related to all BPD features/criteria. Poor emotional understanding was also important. These findings extend past work regarding the emotional functioning of nonclinical persons with BPD features. The role of ability and trait emotion management in BPD is consistent with Linehan’s (1993) emotion dysregulation theory of the disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by impulsive behaviour, unstable self-image and interpersonal relationships, and extreme difficulties in emotion and mood management (APA, 2000). It results primarily from an interaction between emotion dysregulation and an invalidating environment (Linehan, 1993). Emotion dysregulation itself is produced by emotional vulnerability (i.e. affective instability and high sensitivity to emotional stimuli) and deficient emotion modulation (i.e. inability to manage one’s emotions; Linehan, 1993). The poor emotional functioning of individuals with BPD has been evidenced. Early studies showed BPD outpatients to have marked deficits in self-reported emotional awareness and emotion integration, greater intensity of negative emotions, and poor accuracy in identifying negative facial expressions, relative to non-psychiatric controls (Levine, 1992). Other studies also point to emotion dysregulation, or poor emotion management in BPD (e.g. Bland et al., 2004 and Yen et al., 2002). These studies typically use self-report measures and so results cannot be generalized beyond subjective experiences of emotion regulation. They are also subject to limitations such as social desirability (e.g. Kluemper, 2008). Other explorations of emotion functioning in BPD have considered it within the context of trait emotional intelligence (EI). This construct is conceptualized as a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions (e.g. emotion perception/management) located at the lower-levels of personality hierarchies (Petrides, Pérez-González, & Furnham, 2007). It is only minimally related to ability EI which is assessed using maximum performance measures and defined as a cognitive ability involving the ability to perceive, use, understand and manage emotion (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). One study on trait EI and BPD (Leible & Snell, 2004) found that BPD (assessed using the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+: Hyler, 1994) was negatively associated with multiple aspects of trait EI, including self-reported emotion management. However, correlations were typically small (below .35), and the study used a convenience sample of psychology students. In another study using regression techniques, global trait EI negatively predicted BPD after variance from dispositional mood (a known correlate of personality) was removed (Petrides et al., 2007). However, the moderately-sized sample of 212 students questions generalization of the results. The use of global trait EI also masks the importance of individual EI facets and reduces explanatory power. Likewise, the use of global BPD is problematic as EI may play different roles in separate BPD features. This contention is supported by the finding that the trait of affective instability relates to some but not all BPD criteria (Koenigsberg et al., 2001: affective instability is defined as a marked reactivity of mood and is therefore related to emotion management; according to Linehan (1993), these work together to produce emotion dysregulation in BPD). However, because emotion dysregulation is theorized to drive all BPD symptoms (Linehan, 1993), poor emotion management (trait or ability-based) might underlie all BPD criteria. For example, the second BPD criterion of unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships may arise from difficulties in appropriately controlling painful emotions such as anger, whilst impulsivity and self-harming/suicidal behaviour (fourth and fifth criteria) are abnormal responses to emotions and may represent efforts to regulate emotion. Given that trait EI overlaps with neuroticism (e.g. Petrides & Furnham, 2001), which is characteristic of BPDs (Saulsman & Page, 2004), it is not surprising that those with BPD appear lower on trait EI. Linehan’s (1993) theory can also be used to explain these findings. Trait EI (which is largely personality-based) may act in a similar manner to Linehan’s concept of emotional or temperamental vulnerability; it constitutes a risk factor that predisposes individuals toward developing poor emotional functioning and maladaptive BPD traits. In addition, there is considerable overlap between certain trait EI facets and BPD traits (e.g. trait emotion management and BPD affective instability). This overlap is consistent with the DSM-IV which partly defines BPD in terms of poor affect regulation, suggesting that BPD may be conceptualized in terms of poor trait EI. Parallels can also be drawn between Linehan’s concept of emotion modulation and the emotion management component of ability EI; both incorporate skills such as being able to inhibit inappropriate behaviour relating to strong positive or negative emotions. The ability EI skills of individuals with BPD have yet to be explored using established ability EI measures (e.g. Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test: MSCEIT; Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002), and this is important for increasing understanding of actual rather than self-reported emotional functioning. Findings (Bornovalova et al., 2007) that behavioural-based emotional management plays a slightly stronger role in BPD than self-reported emotion management (a component of trait EI) suggests utility in using non self-report measures of emotional functioning for understanding BPD. Using other skill-based tests, poor emotion perception has been associated with BPD, although, findings are mixed (e.g. Bland et al., 2004, Levine, 1992, Lynch et al., 2006 and Wagner and Linehan, 1999). Moreover, ability EI is associated with constructs such as self-reported anxiety (e.g. Bastian, Burns, & Nettelbeck, 2005) and schizotypal personality (Aguirre, Sergi, & Levy, 2008), suggesting a role in mental health and personality functioning.

In conclusion, the findings suggest utility in assessing multiple aspects of ability and trait EI to learn about the emotional functioning of nonclinical adults with BPD traits. The results highlighted the importance of emotion management (trait and ability EI) in all BPD features/criteria. Trait EI is most relevant to areas involving affective instability and self-dysregulation. In addition, persons with BPD traits appear to have poor emotional understanding ability, although, deficits in this skill seem less relevant to the affective components of the disorder.