title: The rejection-rage contingency in borderline personality disorder.
abstract: Though long-standing clinical observation reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.) suggests that the rage characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD) often appears in response to perceived rejection, the role of perceived rejection in triggering rage in BPD has never been empirically tested. Extending basic personality research on rejection sensitivity to a clinical sample, a priming-pronunciation experiment and a 21-day experience-sampling diary examined the contingent relationship between perceived rejection and rage in participants diagnosed with BPD compared with healthy controls. Despite the differences in these 2 assessment methods, the indices of rejection-contingent rage that they both produced were elevated in the BPD group and were strongly interrelated. They provide corroborating evidence that reactions to perceived rejection significantly explain the rage seen in BPD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, MC 5501, New York, NY 10027, USA. berenson@psych.columbia.edu
authors.forename: Kathy R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Berenson
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Downey
authors.forename: Eshkol
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rafaeli
authors.forename: Karin G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Coifman
authors.forename: Nina Leventhal
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Paquin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011889:Rage; D012059:Rejection, Psychology