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Journal of Research in Personality
Volume 42, Issue 2, April 2008, Pages 312-332
 
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doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2007.05.008    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The borderline empathy effect: Do high BPD individuals have greater empathic ability? Or are they just more difficult to “read”?

Judith M. Flurya, William Ickesa, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author and William Schweinleb

aDepartment of Psychology, Life Science Building, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0528, USA bHealth Sciences, University of South Dakota, 414E Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA

Available online 29 May 2007.

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Abstract

Clinical psychologists have suggested that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are unusually accurate at “reading” other people. We investigated this claim by obtaining measures of trait accuracy and empathic accuracy in 38 same-sex dyads, each composed of one high BPD and one low BPD member. At first glance, the results suggested that the high borderline dyad members displayed both better trait accuracy and better empathic accuracy. Additional analyses revealed, however, that these effects were instead a consequence of the high BPD participants having more unusual, harder-to-predict personalities and more difficult-to-infer thoughts and feelings than those of their low BPD counterparts. We conclude that the relative empathic advantage displayed by high BPD individuals does not reflect greater ability; instead, they are simply more difficult to “read” than low BPD individuals are.

Keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Empathic accuracy; Trait accuracy; Psychotherapy

Article Outline

1. Introduction
1.1. The present study
2. Method
2.1. Participants
2.2. Setting and equipment
2.3. Personality rating scale (three versions)
2.4. Procedure
2.5. Collection of the personality self-ratings and the videotaped interaction data
2.6. Collection of the thought/feeling data
2.7. Collection of the empathic accuracy data
2.8. Collection of the final self-report measure
3. Results
3.1. Initial findings for the trait accuracy measure
3.2. Tests of potential alternative interpretations
3.3. Results for the empathic accuracy measure
3.4. Possible alternative explanations
3.5. Are high-BPD individuals more empathic or simply harder to “read”?
4. Discussion
4.1. Re-examining the borderline empathy effect
Acknowledgements
Appendix A
Appendix B.  
References

 
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