The Unquiet Attachment

A blog exploring Borderline Personality Disorder through the lens of attachment theory, addressing diverse populations such as sex trafficked survivors, veterans, juveniles, and individuals with substance use disorder, infused with logotherapy and humanist philosophy.

Structure

An entirely different perspective is that personality may not be fixed in its build; instead, it is an outcome of a succession of self-systems. The self-system in BPD is an unstable one that resulted from developmental relational trauma, leaving individuals with feelings of low self-efficacy and identity diffusion – a flickering flame of self-worth that is nearly always threatened by the wind of perceived abandonment (Cervone & Pervin, 2023).

Processes/Dynamics

BPD can be understood as a maladaptive self-regulatory process that is chronically attuned to affect or interpersonal experiences. Bandura has argued that the principles of observational learning can explain how the internalization of chaotic relationship models restructures one’s responses to most social interaction situations by modeling fearful or reactive coping strategies. This further showcases how suspicion and hyper alertness get in the way of people’s often-so-sabotaged connection efforts, symbolized by a bridge (Mischel et al., 2011).

Clinical Application Based on Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Theory of Personality

Borderline Personality Disorder – The Flickering Flame

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can be represented by the metaphor of a flickering flame – a shattered self. This reflects a distorted self-image resulting from an invalidating environment and relational trauma. Bandura’s social-cognitive theory provides a trauma-informed lens to explain the reciprocal determinism among behavior, cognition, and environment in personality.

Growth and Development

Patterns of developmental influence causing BPD may therefore be quite random. Depending on early life experiences, caregivers may model and promote discordant or damaging behaviors to stunt the development of secure attachment and self-regulatory capacity. They underscore how such interruptions in development damage a person’s reflective capacity and emotional haven (McAdams & Manczak, 2015).

Psychopathology and Therapeutic Change

Healing requires reconstructing the shattered mirror, developing self-efficacy through modeling, skill acquisition, and nurturance, and repairing through compassion in interpersonal relationships. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is derived from social-cognitive theory. It is designed to help individuals develop efficacy in emotional regulation and social effectiveness, in other words, to turn the flickering flame into a steady light.

References

Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2023). Personality: Theory and research (15th ed.). Wiley.

McAdams, D. P., & Manczak, E. (2015). Personality and the life story. In M. Mikulincer, P. R. Shaver, M. L. Cooper, & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), APA handbook of personality and social psychology, Volume 4: Personality processes and individual differences (pp. 425–446). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14343-019

Mischel, W., Ayduk, O., Berman, M. G., Casey, B. J., Gotlib, I. H., Jonides, J., Kross, E., Teslovich, T., Wilson, N. L., Zayas, V., & Shoda, Y. (2011). ‘Willpower’ over the life span: Decomposing self-regulation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(2), 252–256. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq081