What Is True for Others Does Not Apply to Me: Expectations About Social Causality and the Anticipation of Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Authors

Ruben Vonderlin, Aimee Lerchl, Hannah Schott, Carola Claus, Sofie Hanraths, Barbara Dahme, Miriam Biermann, Büsra Senyüz, Saskia Mahalingam, Tali Boritz, Shelley McMain, Peter Kirsch, Tobias Teismann, Martin Bohus, Stefanie Lis

Published in

Journal of personality disorders. Volume 40. Issue 5. Pages 411-430.

Abstract

Research suggests that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display a maladaptive explanatory style, but it remains unclear whether this bias is specific to self-referential processing or reflects a broader negative tendency. We examined whether expectations about self-esteem-damaging and self-esteem-enhancing explanations, as well as associated emotions, are specific to self-referential processing in BPD, and how they relate to self-esteem and loneliness. Sixty individuals with BPD and 60 nonclinical controls evaluated the likelihood of positive, neutral, and negative explanations in self- and other-related scenarios, rated anticipated emotional responses, and completed measures of self-esteem and loneliness. Compared to controls, individuals with BPD endorsed more negative and fewer positive explanations in self-referential scenarios, with stronger negative and weaker positive emotions. Across groups, explanatory expectations related to lower self-esteem, but in BPD, reduced anticipation of positive emotions was linked to higher loneliness. These findings highlight potential intervention targets to enhance social functioning in BPD.

PMID:
42863108
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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