Toward Validation of a Borderline Personality Disorder-Relevant Picture Set

Abstract

This investigation sought to validate a stimulus set previously adapted by expert consensus from the International Affective Picture System to be unpleasant and evocative to individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This set was rated as significantly more arousing by 22 individuals diagnosed with BPD compared to 22 healthy controls, though this mean difference appeared to be driven by differences in ratings for a small subset of pictures. The present BPD sample did not rate the BPD-specific picture set as more arousing than a previous BPD sample (Herpertz, Kunert, Schwenger, & Sass, 1999) had rated a different set of unpleasant, but non-BPD-specific International Affective Picture System images. Future BPD-specific image sets may benefit from including images that more closely target BPD sensitivities and features.