Abstract

It has been suggested that individuals with borderline personality features are aggressive toward others because of their difficulty in emotion regulation. However, emotion dysregulation is a highly complex concept and needs to be specified. Therefore the current study considered dysregulation in shame and anger and their interplay which are especially prominent when individuals with borderline personality features are aggressive. Specifically, it was hypothesized that shame-proneness and trait anger would sequentially mediate the relationship between borderline personality features and aggression toward others. A total of 273 female undergraduates completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing borderline personality features, shame-proneness, trait anger, and aggression toward others. The results indicated that individuals with more borderline personality features are more aggressive toward other. Trait anger completely mediated the relationship between borderline personality features and aggression toward others. Inconsistent with the hypothesis, shame-proneness and trait anger were not significant sequential mediators between borderline personality features and aggression toward others. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications as well as the limitations of the study were discussed.