Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

There is a significant amount of stigma associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) among mental health professionals (Aviram, Brodsky & Stanley, 2006). Although gender has been found to influence attitudes towards psychological disorders (Wirth & Bodenhausen, 2009), findings concerning the effects of gender on the diagnosis of BPD have been inconsistent. Moreover, BPD is a heterogeneous disorder (Lewis et al., 2012), but little is known about the impact of BPD symptom presentation on diagnosis, treatment, or clinician attitudes. This study used a vignette methodology to examine the effect of clinician attitudes toward BPD, client gender, and BPD symptom presentation on diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Clinicians read one of four BPD vignettes that varied by client gender and symptom presentation (i.e., female-type or male-type BPD symptoms), and then provided a diagnosis and representativeness ratings of BPD and other personality disorder diagnoses and symptoms. They also rated severity, prognosis, likelihood the client would benefit from treatment, likelihood they would disclose the diagnosis to the client, willingness to work with the individual, and various treatment recommendations. Finally, they completed measures of attitude towards BPD, social desirability, and a demographic questionnaire. The results indicated that clinicians' attitudes toward BPD were not predictive of a BPD diagnosis, BPD representativeness or symptom ratings, severity ratings, or treatment recommendations. However, clinicians' attitude towards BPD had a small effect on ratings of prognosis and likelihood the client would benefit from treatment, and a moderate effect on their willingness to work with client. The gender of the client had a significant effect on treatment recommendations, with the female clients recommended effective treatments more often than male clients. The type of BPD symptom presentation had a significant impact on the diagnosis of BPD, BPD representativeness ratings, and treatment recommendations. There were no significant interactions between gender and symptom presentations. There are several limitations of the study, particularly the use of a vignette methodology. Nevertheless, the results have implications for the diagnosis and treatment of BPD.

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