Modeling Stability and Change in Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms Using the Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales–Big Five (IASR–B5)

Abstract

Personality disorders have been defined as “stable over time.” However, research now supports marked change in the symptoms of these disorders and significant individual variability in the trajectories across time. Using the Longitudinal Study of Personality Disorders (Lenzenweger, 2006), we explore the ability of the Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales—Big Five (IASR–B5; Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990) to predict individual variation in initial value and rate of change in borderline personality disorder symptoms. The dimensions of the IASR–B5 predict variability in initial symptoms and rates of change. Interaction effects emerged between Dominance and Conscientiousness, Love and Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness and Neuroticism in predicting initial symptoms; and between Dominance and Love and Love and Neuroticism in predicting rates of change, suggesting that the effects of broad domains of personality are not merely additive but conditional on each other.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by Grant MH-45448 from the National Institute of Mental Health, Washington, DC (M. F. Lenzenweger). We thank Armand W. Loranger for providing training and consultation on the use of the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) and Jerry S. Wiggins for providing consultation on the initial use of the Revised Interpersonal Adjectives Scale–Big 5 (IASR–B5). We are grateful to Lauren Korfine for project coordination in the early phase of the study.

Notes

¹Openness was not included in any of the presented models because the FFM and PD literature has consistently failed to find significant relationship between Openness and BPD (Saulsman & Page, 2004). Furthermore, our own analyses with this data set have been consistent with this finding.