AMBULATORY ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY, ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT, AND STRESS STUDY

What processes account for the exacerbation, maintenance, and resolution of personality pathology?Major theoretical models argue that personality disorders (PDs) reflect the maladaptive expression of personality traits via dynamic processes that are extreme, rigid, or mismatched to environmental cues.  Although these dynamic processes likely reflect the maintenance mechanisms of PDs, and despite the fact that they provide optimal targets for clinical interventions, they remain understudied and poorly understood.  It also seems likely these dynamic processes form a vicious cycle, in that they both predispose individuals to stressful experiences and arise from maladaptive self-regulation in response to stressors in the environment.  The goal of this project is to use ambulatory assessment techniques to study the daily dynamic processes of stress and responses to that stress, and how levels of PD traits amplify or dampen those processes.  Specifically, drawing on several concepts from the stress literature that mesh with theories of PD may provide insights into key maladaptive features of these debilitating disorders.  These include, stress generation, stress sensitivity, and maladaptive self-regulation.  Consistent with a dimensional perspective on PD, these processes will be studied in a large sample (N=311) of diverse individuals from the community, ranging from those with few interpersonal problems to those with significant difficulties. 

Innovative data collection procedures include random surveys delivered via smartphone throughout the day, beginning and end of day surveys, momentary “micro-bursts” of intensive sampling following stressful events, subsamples with daily video diaries, ambulatory psychophysiology using Fitbit wearable sensors, passive sensing via smartphone sensors using the www.awareframework.com, as well as additional features.

We have generously been granted support from the University of Pittsburgh's Central Research Development Fund and the University Center for Urban and Social Research Steven Manners’ Award for this study.