Dissertations and Theses
Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Eric Fertuck
Second Advisor
Robert Melara
Third Advisor
Waleed Sami
Keywords
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), ostracism, social exclusion, heart rate variability (HRV), parasympathetic nervous activity (PNS), Cyberball, rejection sensitivity, electrocardiogram (ECG)
Abstract
Abstract
The experience of being excluded is universally unpleasant. However, for individuals that suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), the experience of social exclusion, or ostracism can be unbearable (Bortolla, et al., 2019). While there is a significant amount of research on physiological reactivity in BPD, no studies adequately connect the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses of people with BPD to social exclusion which is critical to understand as the inability of the PNS of individuals with BPD to adapt to stressors may be a contributing factor to the elevated rate of suicide and suicide attempts in this clinical population (Oldham, 2002). The Cyberball paradigm, a virtual ball-tossing game that simulates the experience of being social excluded when the participant does not receive the ball from preprogrammed computer players, has been effective in generating real-time experiences of social exclusion. This study proposes to address this gap with a sample of 32 individuals of which 15 participants are diagnosed with BPD. BPD and NCC participants will engage in a parametrically modulated Cyberball+ task with exclusion probability, ranging from overinclusion to overexclusion (40%, 50%, 60%, 80%, and 90%) exclusion conditions. The results indicated a main effect of clinical status on mean HF HRV [F(1, 31) = 5.05, p = .026]. These findings show evidence of a failure of individuals with BPD to adequately adapt to the social stressor of social exclusion as evidenced by a blunted parasympathetic response in comparison to NCCs and highlight pathological autonomic processes underlying interpersonal dysregulation in this population.
Keywords Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), ostracism, social exclusion, heart rate
variability (HRV), parasympathetic nervous activity (PNS), Cyberball, rejection sensitivity, electrocardiogram (ECG)
Recommended Citation
Barnes, Rebecca E., "Parasympathethic Nervous Activity and Social Exclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1161