Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• sythe, Vibh Afton

Titel

Choosing emotion regulation strategies: The effects of interpersonal cues and symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Selecting interpersonal behavior that is best suited to a situation relies on identifying and incorporating cues. Among these cues may be the emotion of interaction partners or the intimacy of the relationship. One situation in which it may be particularly important to use information from interpersonal cues may be in the case of interpersonal emotion regulation. Emotion regulation allows us to motivate and organize behavior. Some emotion regulation strategies rely on interactions with others; these are referred to as Interpersonal Emotion Regulation strategies (IER). Use of IER when environmental cues suggest such strategies may be unwelcome or inappropriate may result in unsuccessful attempts at regulation, increased dissatisfaction in relationships, or both. One aim of the current investigation was to understand whether BPD symptoms were related to impaired use of interpersonal cues. In this study, participants (N= 174) were asked to indicate the likelihood of using IER in vignette scenarios which varied by cues of emotion (i.e., anger or neutral emotion) and relationship intimacy (i.e., high intimacy or low intimacy relationship). There was no significant difference in participant ratings of the likelihood of using interpersonal emotional regulations strategies when and anger cue was presented versus when it was not, t(172) = -.88, p = .38. Participants reported that the mean likelihood for using interpersonal emotion regulation strategies was higher when a cue of intimacy was present, when it was not, such that individuals were more likely to use F-IER when intimacy cue was present, t(172) = -2.82, p = .01. There was also a significant difference between groups presented with intimacy cue and not presented with intimacy cue on interpersonal factors like “How good a time is this to talk to this person about how you feel?” t(172) = -4.02, p<.01. This result might mean that cues of intimacy are particularly relevant in the likelihood of engaging functional interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. The only predictor associated with the use of Dysfunctional interpersonal emotion regulation strategies was BPD symptoms. The prediction that individuals with elevated BPD symptoms would be different in their use of cues like anger and intimacy was not supported. There was no significant interaction between the presence of an intimacy cue and the presence of an anger cue, F(1,170)=1.6, p = .20. A limitation of the current study may be the strength of the emotional induction and the reliance on participants' accuracy in predicting their own behavior. Future studies could improve upon the current study by creating laboratory scenarios to more directly manipulate emotion and interpersonal cues.