Personality Test Borderline Personality 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is primarily characterized by:
- Persistent grandiosity and lack of empathy
- Pervasive instability in moods, self-image, and relationships (Correct answer)
- Chronic social withdrawal and flat affect
- Systematic rule violation and deceitfulness
Correct answer: Pervasive instability in moods, self-image, and relationships
BPD is defined by instability across emotions, self-concept, and interpersonal relationships, often with impulsivity.
Question 2: A hallmark feature of BPD relationships is:
- Consistently stable, deep attachments
- Avoidance of all close relationships
- Intense idealization followed by sudden devaluation (Correct answer)
- Indifference to relationship outcomes
Correct answer: Intense idealization followed by sudden devaluation
BPD relationships often cycle between intense idealization ('this person is perfect') and sudden devaluation ('they're terrible').
Question 3: Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment is a core DSM-5 criterion for:
- Dependent Personality Disorder
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder (Correct answer)
- Histrionic Personality Disorder
Correct answer: Borderline Personality Disorder
Fear of abandonment — both real and imagined — and desperate efforts to prevent it are defining features of BPD.
Question 4: Which emotion regulation pattern is most characteristic of BPD?
- Emotional blunting and numbness
- Rapid emotional shifts and difficulty returning to emotional baseline (Correct answer)
- Chronic low-level sadness without fluctuation
- Absence of any emotional response
Correct answer: Rapid emotional shifts and difficulty returning to emotional baseline
BPD involves emotional dysregulation: intense emotional reactions that are slow to return to baseline, often described as emotional 'burnability.'
Question 5: Self-harm in BPD most commonly functions as:
- An attention-seeking behavior with no emotional purpose
- A way to regulate overwhelming emotional pain (Correct answer)
- Evidence of suicidal intent in all cases
- A symptom unique to BPD with no other causes
Correct answer: A way to regulate overwhelming emotional pain
Non-suicidal self-injury in BPD often serves as a coping mechanism to manage or escape unbearable emotional distress.
Question 6: The most evidence-based psychotherapy for BPD is:
- Psychoanalysis three times per week
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for phobias
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) (Correct answer)
- Exposure and Response Prevention
Correct answer: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), developed by Marsha Linehan, is the gold-standard treatment for BPD.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is primarily characterized by: