PERCEIVED REJECTION IN PERSONALITY PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: THE ROLE OF ATTACHMENT & GENDER

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2020-04-09

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Abstract

With the introduction of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), researchers have become better able to investigate specific personality traits across personality psychopathology. Prior research suggests that individuals with higher rates of personality psychopathology are more likely to endorse insecure attachment patterns which can lead to stronger reactions towards perceived rejection. This study investigated how attachment style and gender moderate the strength of the association between personality psychopathology and reactions to perceived rejection. To examine the role of attachment and gender in the relationship between personality psychopathology and reactions to perceived rejection, an undergraduate sample of 150 students, as well as a funded Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) sample of 278 individuals completed various psychometrically supported personality and attachment self-report measures and then watched three video clips addressing rejection from parents, peers, and romantic partners. Participants were asked to complete a short survey that measured their emotional status and level of reaction to the video stimuli. Analyses of variance and moderation effects suggested that attachment patterns inconsistently moderate maladaptive reactions to rejection, and that gender moderates the relationship between personality psychopathology and externalizing reactions to rejection.

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Keywords

Personality Psychopathology, Rejection, Attachment, Gender

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