The Relationship Between Shame and Aggression Among Individuals with Features of Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe condition characterized by impulsivity, mood lability, and interpersonal difficulties (DSM-5, 2013). Although interpersonal dysfunction is just one of several features, a number of other BPD symptoms frequently occur in interpersonal contexts (Roepke et al., 2013). One such interpersonal difficulty is interpersonal aggression, in which these individuals may be prone to physical or verbal acts of aggression (Perez-Rodriguez et al., 2010). There is evidence that aggression and shame are positively correlated (Tangney et al., 1996), and both clinical experience and research demonstrate a strong connection between shame and BPD (Crowe, 2004; Rusch et al., 2007). Thus, it is possible that shame may be one cause of the aggressive behaviors considered characteristic of BPD. It is theorized that individuals with BPD utilize aggressive behaviors to regulate shame (Schloeneber and Berenbaum, 2012). Although anger rumination has been found to mediate the relationship between shame and BPD features (Peters et al., 2013), support for causal relationships between shame, aggression, and BPD is currently lacking. The present study experimentally evaluated whether aggression is used to regulate the experience of shame in individuals with BPD features. A sample of 80 non-clinical undergraduate students completed a series of questionnaires, including a measure of their ability to regulate their emotions and a baseline measure of their state-shame. Participants then completed a shame mood induction and a second measure of state-shame. Afterwards, the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP; Cherek; Dougherty, 1997) was administered as a behavioral measure of aggression. The opportunity to aggress was experimentally manipulated, such that half of the participants were given the opportunity to aggress while participating in the PSAP, and the other half of the participants were given the opportunity to guard their points. Participants completed a third measure of state-shame after the PSAP. The results did not support the prediction that the opportunity to aggress would have a stronger effect in decreasing the experience of shame in individuals with more BPD features. However, exploratory analyses demonstrated a three-way interaction between BPD features, experimental condition, and the amount of aggressive or guarding behavior participants exhibited, such that individuals with more BPD features experienced a greater reduction in shame after engaging in greater amounts of aggressive behavior, whereas individuals with fewer BPD features experienced a slight increase in shame after engaging in greater amounts of aggressive behavior. These findings add tentative support to the theory that aggressive behavior is used to regulate the experience of shame in individuals with features of BPD.