Impulsivity of female inmates with borderline personality ...



Failing to Heed Negative Consequences of Actions may Underlie Impulsive Behavior in BPD

Hochhausen, N. M., Lorenz, A R., & Newman, J. P. (2002). Specifying the impulsivity of female inmates with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 495–501.

Impulsivity is considered a key feature of borderline personality disorder. Examples of impulsive behaviors involve quick, unplanned behaviors that lack forethought, such as reckless driving and other forms of thrill-seeking behavior. In BPD, impulsive behavior often takes the form of substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, suicide attempts, self-mutilative behavior, and physical and verbal altercations. Consistent with the clinical picture of BPD, this study found that incarcerated women diagnosed with BPD reported more impulsive behaviors and showed greater impulsivity when completing a laboratory task than did controls. The women with BPD failed to consider the negative consequences of their actions before responding in this laboratory task. To the extent that laboratory evidence reflects real-life behavior, the findings support the view that people with BPD may act impulsively because they fail to heed negative consequences before acting.

Instability of Mood a Keynote Feature of BPD

Koenigsberg, H. W., Harvey, P. D., Mitropoulou, V., Schmeidler, J., New, A. S., Goodman, M., et al. (2002). Characterizing affective instability in borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 789-796,

Another core feature of borderline personality disorder is instability of moods. Emotions and moods may run the gamut from anger and irritability to depression and anxiety. Each mood state may last from a few hours to a few days. In this study, a group of 152 patients with various personality disorders were tested on a measure of emotional instability. The results showed greater emotional instability among those with BPD with respect to anger and anxiety and greater fluctuations between depression and anxiety. Not surprisingly, BPD patients failed to show greater oscillation between depression and elation of the type associated with bipolar disorder.

“In Cold Blood:” Homicides Committed by Psychopathic Offenders

Woodworth, M., & and Porter, S. (2002). In cold blood: characteristics of criminal homicides as

a function of psychopathy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 436-445.

When we consider the lack of remorse following acts of wrongdoing and the intentionally cruel and indifferent treatment of others associated with the psychopathic personality, the image of the cold-blooded killer may spring to mind. This ground-breaking study put this image to the test by comparing homicides committed by psychopathic offenders with those committed by nonpsychopathic offenders. The sample consisted of 125 Canadian offenders. The results support the clinical impression of psychopathic killers. The homicides they committed were more often “cold-blooded” in nature, characterized by premeditation and motivated by an external goal, such as a contract killing. By contrast, homicides committed by nonpsychopaths more often represented "crimes of passion" rather than cold, calculated killing. Nearly all of the homicides (93.3%) committed psychopathic offenders fit the “cold-blooded” profile, as compared to 48.4% of the homicides committed by nonpsychopathic offenders.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download