Keywords

borderline personality disorder; retaliatory aggression; motivations; social media

Abstract

Social media has become a popular way of connecting with people, but it has also led to an increase in cyber aggression. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition that is characterized by retaliatory aggression, difficulty in interpersonal relationships, and high impulsivity. Those who endorse BPD symptoms experience unstable interpersonal relationships and struggle to maintain connections with others which can lead to problematic behaviors on social media like retaliatory aggression. Understanding the motivations behind those behaviors can help inform the experiences of the diagnosed population, mitigate problematic behaviors, and facilitate healthy social relationships. This study aims to explore the motivations that BPD symptom endorsers most identify with, such as self-protection, affiliation, and status, and the prevalence of retaliatory aggression on social media. The participants completed a self-report survey that measured their motivations, online revenge behaviors, and BPD symptom endorsement. Retaliatory aggression was also positively related to the status motivation. Results indicated self-protection had a moderating effect on the relationship between borderline symptom endorsement and retaliatory aggression. The findings of this study will help to strengthen existing literature about BPD features of impulsivity and reactivity and inform treatment and therapeutic methods by identifying the motivation behind retaliation for those who exhibit symptoms of BPD. It will also have clinical implications for how social media use is advised and addressed. Future research should seek to identify what other motivations are attributed to retaliatory aggression and expand the population to include more genders and cultures.

Thesis Completion Year

2024

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

White, Grace

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Thesis Discipline

Psychology

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

Campus Location

UCF Online

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Rights Statement

In Copyright