Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a high risk and prevalent personality disorder that is associated with increased negative emotions, decreased positive emotions, and impairments in symbolization and impaired reflective functioning. These dimensions, while they may impact one another, have not been investigated concurrently from qualitative, linguistic narratives. We hypothesized a BPD group would have lower expression of positive emotions and greater expression of negative emotions and less reflective function than healthy controls. Additionally, we explored the role of referential activity (an index of symbolic capacity) between BPD and healthy controls in the context of valenced emotional expression. An adult, female BPD group (n = 13) and a demographically matched healthy control group (n = 14) were recruited and administered the Adult Attachment Interview and/or the Object Relations Inventory. Computerized text analyses were used to assess positive emotion and negative emotion, the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionaries to assess referential activity, and the Computerized Reflective Function dictionary. On the Object Relations Inventory, the BPD group expressed more frequent negative emotions and less frequent positive emotions; on the Adult Attachment Interview, the BPD group exhibited less expression of positive emotions. There were no differences between BPD and controls on referential activity or reflective functioning on either interview. However, BPD status fully mediated the significant relationship between referential activity and negative emotion expression. The BPD group utilized more referential activity when expressing negative emotions than controls. Conversely, the control group utilized more referential activity when expressing positive emotions than controls. Referential activity seems to play an important role in explaining the BPD versus control difference in valenced linguistic emotional expression. Furthermore, these results suggest the object relations inventory elicits more robust linguistic features relevant to BPD.

边缘型人格障碍 (BPD) 是一种高风险和普遍的人格障碍，与消极情绪增加、积极情绪减少、象征化障碍和反思功能受损有关。这些维度虽然可能相互影响，但尚未从定性的语言叙述中同时进行研究。我们假设与健康对照组相比，BPD 组的积极情绪表达较低，消极情绪表达较多，反思功能较弱。此外，我们还探讨了 BPD 和健康对照之间的参考活动（象征能力指数）在有价情感表达的背景下的作用。一个成年人，女性 BPD 组（n = 13）和人口统计学匹配的健康对照组（n = 14）被招募并管理成人依恋访谈和/或对象关系量表。计算机文本分析用于评估积极情绪和消极情绪，使用加权参考活动词典评估参考活动，以及计算机化反思功能词典。在客体关系量表中，BPD 组表达的负面情绪较多，正面情绪较少；在成人依恋访谈中，BPD 组表现出较少的积极情绪表达。在任何一次访谈中，BPD 和对照在参考活动或反思功能方面都没有差异。然而，BPD 状态充分介导了参照活动与消极情绪表达之间的显着关系。与对照组相比，BPD 组在表达负面情绪时使用了更多的参考活动。相反，与对照组相比，对照组在表达积极情绪时使用了更多的参考活动。参考活动似乎在解释 BPD 与对照在价语言情感表达方面的差异方面发挥着重要作用。此外，这些结果表明对象关系清单引发了与 BPD 相关的更强大的语言特征。参照活动似乎在解释 BPD 与对照在价语言情感表达方面的差异方面发挥着重要作用。此外，这些结果表明对象关系清单引发了与 BPD 相关的更强大的语言特征。参考活动似乎在解释 BPD 与对照在价语言情感表达方面的差异方面发挥着重要作用。此外，这些结果表明对象关系清单引发了与 BPD 相关的更强大的语言特征。