Correlates of Dissociation in Borderline Personality Pathology

The present study assessed the relation among dissociation, alexithymia, cognitive failures and fantasy proneness in borderline personality pathology and the non-clinical groups. At the first stage, 1,988 young adults from different universities were administered Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+). A total Score of 50 or more indicates a substantial likelihood that the individual had a significant personality disturbance. Therefore, such cases were sorted out. Next, the individuals who reached or exceeded the threshold (i.e. scored five or more on the borderline pathology subscale) were finally categorized into borderline personality pathology group. On the other hand, the non-clinical group consisted of individuals who scored 20 or less on the total PDQ-4+ questionnaire. A total of 100 young adults with 50 in each group were then administered the following four questionnaires, i.e., the Dissociative Experiences Scale II, Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 , the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire and the Creative Experiences Questionnaire. The results revealed a significant difference between borderline personality pathology and the non-clinical group on the measures of dissociation, alexithymia, cognitive failures and fantasy proneness wherein borderline group exhibited greater degree of all those traits. Furthermore, alexithymia, cognitive failures and fantasy proneness were found to be significant predictors of dissociation in borderline personality pathology and the non-clinical groups.