(PS8-C74) Research Implications of Charting the Dynamics of Recent Emotional Episodes

Emotional episodes tend to unfold via three main components: 1) how quickly and steeply a person responds to an event (emotional reactivity), 2) peak level of distress (emotional intensity), and 3) the length of time it takes to come back down (return to baseline; Davidson, 1998; Kuppens et al., 2010). Emotion dynamics are important because people with psychopathology, most notably individuals with symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), tend to show greater emotional reactivity and longer return to baseline (Linehan, 1993). Although emotional dynamics are often assessed via intensive longitudinal designs, recent work suggests that people can “chart” emotional episodes as a clinical exercise (Veilleux et al., 2022). In the current study, we explored data from emotional charting in the lab to determine if symptoms of BPD and known attributes associated with BPD (distress tolerance, experiential avoidance, maladaptive beliefs about emotion) are correlated with subjective elements of charting (baseline level of affect prior to an emotional event, peak level, and time to return to baseline).

Participants (n = 104) were students from a university subject pool who were screened using the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features Scale. We recruited those high (n = 52) and low (n = 52) in BPD features. In the lab, we asked them to chart two emotional events (one distressing and one happy event) with initial baseline level of distress or happiness, peak level of distress/happiness on a scale from 0 to 100, and time (in minutes) it took to return to baseline. They also reported on typical daily levels of distress and happiness. We also asked them to complete trait measures of experiential avoidance, distress tolerance, and beliefs about emotion. Results suggested that higher symptoms of BPD, greater experiential avoidance, and lower distress tolerance were associated with starting an emotional episode with a higher level of distress and a higher peak emotional intensity. Only lower typical happiness levels were associated with greater BPD symptoms, not the happiness event charting variables.

Results suggest this clinical exercise in charting emotional episodes maps on to BPD symptoms and emotion dysregulation, providing validation for the charting activity. Using this charting exercise (i.e., attending to the components of the charts) might provide important assessment and intervention opportunities. For example, in using charting with people with BPD symptoms, a clinician might expect high distress responses; perhaps charting could be integrated with chain analyses to look for points to intervene.