TY - JOUR
T1 - Degree of correspondence between retrospective and proximal reports of borderline personality disorder symptoms, symptom triggers, and emotions
AU - Mneimne, Malek
AU - Michael Furr, R.
AU - Mendrygal, David
AU - Law, Mary Kate
AU - Arnold, Elizabeth Mayfield
AU - Fleeson, William
N1 - Funding Information:
Research presented in this article was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01MH70571. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Guilford Press.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This study investigated the degree of correspondence of retrospective reports of personality disorder symptoms, triggers, and emotions with reports closer in time to the actual experiences. Retrospective reports of symptoms, triggers, and emotions are heavily used in both clinical and research settings, yet no study has investigated the correspondence for symptoms or triggers of personality disorders. A total of 257 participants, including 75 with BPD, completed overlapping daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual questionnaires. Retrospective reports showed: (1) systematic biases, reporting fewer symptom and situational trigger occurrences, and greater emotion intensities; but (2) little unsystematic error, largely reproducing bias-adjusted individual levels of symptoms, situational triggers, and emotions (rs generally .70–.80). People with BPD did not retrospectively misremember their symptoms, triggers, or emotions much more than others. Thus, retrospective reports of symptoms, triggers, and emotions should be adjusted for systematic bias, but after such adjustment can be taken as relatively faithful accounts of individuals’ experiences.
AB - This study investigated the degree of correspondence of retrospective reports of personality disorder symptoms, triggers, and emotions with reports closer in time to the actual experiences. Retrospective reports of symptoms, triggers, and emotions are heavily used in both clinical and research settings, yet no study has investigated the correspondence for symptoms or triggers of personality disorders. A total of 257 participants, including 75 with BPD, completed overlapping daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual questionnaires. Retrospective reports showed: (1) systematic biases, reporting fewer symptom and situational trigger occurrences, and greater emotion intensities; but (2) little unsystematic error, largely reproducing bias-adjusted individual levels of symptoms, situational triggers, and emotions (rs generally .70–.80). People with BPD did not retrospectively misremember their symptoms, triggers, or emotions much more than others. Thus, retrospective reports of symptoms, triggers, and emotions should be adjusted for systematic bias, but after such adjustment can be taken as relatively faithful accounts of individuals’ experiences.
KW - Accuracy
KW - Borderline personality disorder
KW - Distortion
KW - Experience-sampling
KW - Retrospective reports
KW - Self-report
KW - Symptoms
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U2 - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_418
DO - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_418
M3 - Article
C2 - 30920939
AN - SCOPUS:85078746161
SN - 0885-579X
VL - 35
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Journal of Personality Disorders
JF - Journal of Personality Disorders
IS - 1
ER -