The Impact of Validation Versus Invalidation on Aggression in Individuals with Emotion Regulation Difficulties Alyssa C. Jones 1, Christopher D. Hughes 2, Nathaniel R. Herr 1 Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe psychological disorder characterized by emotion dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, impulsivity, and identity disturbance. Specific difficulties controlling anger may lead to increased rates of aggression, contributing to further interpersonal problems. Invalidation (i.e., the criticism, negation, or trivialization of one’s internal state) is theorized to be a critical component in the development of emotion dysregulation in BPD (Linehan, 1993; Selby & Joiner, 2009), and previous work has shown that emotional invalidation during childhood may be a risk factor for relationship problems among those with BPD (Selby et al., 2008). Kim & Kim (2013) found that validation can be effective in lowering negative mood and aggression; however, little work has examined this relationship in those with difficulties regulating emotions. Thus, the present study sought to elucidate the relationship between invalidation and aggressive behaviors in individuals with difficulties regulating emotions. Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of personality and social psychology, 63(3), 452. Cherek, D.R., Dougherty, D.M., The relationship between provocation frequency and human aggressive responding. Psychopharmacology 111, Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), Kim, E., & Kim, C. (2013). Comparative effects of empathic verbal responses: Reflection versus validation. Journal of counseling psychology, 60(3), 439. Linehan, M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press. Robinson, O., Grillon, C., & Sahakian, B. (2012). The mood induction task: A standardized, computerized laboratory procedure for altering mood state in humans. Protocol Exchange. Selby, E. A., Braithwaite, S. R., Joiner Jr, T. E., & Fincham, F. D. (2008). Features of borderline personality disorder, perceived childhood emotional invalidation, and dysfunction within current romantic relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(6), 885. Selby, E. A., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2009). Cascades of emotion: The emergence of borderline personality disorder from emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Review of General Psychology, 13 (3), 219. This study provides the first experimental evidence that emotional invalidation may trigger aggressive behavior among individuals with emotion regulation difficulties. Alternatively, validating individuals with greater emotion regulation difficulties may prevent aggressive behaviors that are linked to negative mood. Future studies should: consider adding a neutral (neither validating nor invalidating) experimental condition, include a clinical sample or draw from the general population, and examine additional forms and/or levels of invalidation. Discussion References Participants: 69 introductory psychology students (mean age of 20; SD=3.10 years) at American University participated in exchange for course credit. Participants were 61% female. Ethnic breakdown: 57% Caucasian; 12% Asian/Pacific Islander; 12% Hispanic/Latino/Latina; 10% Black or African; 1% Native American or American Indian, and 7% other race/ethnicity. Recruitment: Participants were recruited into one of two groups based on their DERS scores: Low DERS: Participants (n=39) scoring at or below 81 (i.e., the approximate mean DERS score reported in undergraduates). High DERS: Participants (n=30) scoring at or above 100 (i.e., one standard deviation above the mean). Measures: Emotion Regulation Ability. The 36-item self report Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) was used to assess participants’ emotion regulation ability. Trait Aggression. The 29-item self report Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry, 1992) was used to assess participants’ trait aggression. Current Emotion. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to measure sadness. Participants drew a vertical line along a horizontal dimension to indicate how sad they felt from “Not at all” to “Extremely” Behavioral aggression. The Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP; Cherek & Dougherty, 1997) was used as a behavioral measure of aggression. Participants attempt to earn points while playing against another (fictitious) participant, with the ability to take away their points. Participants choose between pressing buttons to: earn points, subtract points from opponent (for which they gain no points themselves; the aggressive response) and protecting their points from attacks. Procedure: After completing initial questionnaires, participants were given the PSAP instructions. After a two-minute trial run, participants were given the VAS (time 1 sadness). Then, participants underwent a Sad Mood Induction (Robinson, Grillon & Sahakian, 2012), after which they completed the VAS again (time 2 sadness). A research assistant then either validated (“That task makes a lot of people really sad”) or invalidated (“That doesn’t usually make people so sad”) the participant’s sadness. Immediately following the validation/invalidation, participants engaged in the PSAP for 10 minutes. After the PSAP, participants filled out the VAS (time 3 sadness). Effects of validation and invalidation on aggression: A 2 (low DERS vs. high DERS) x 2 (validation vs. invalidation) analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was run (see figure below). Main effect: Those who were invalidated were more aggressive than those who were validated, F(1, 64) = 10.85, p =.002. Interaction effect: There was a significant interaction between DERS group and the validation manipulation, F(1, 64) = 5.23, p =.026. For individuals with low DERS scores, whether they were validated or invalidated made little difference in their aggressive behavior. Individuals with high DERS scores displayed significantly higher aggression when they were invalidated than when they were validated. Pairwise comparisons indicated that aggression among high DERS individuals who were invalidated was significantly higher than aggression among low DERS individuals who were invalidated (p =.015) and high DERS individuals who were validated (p <.001). Sex differences: A marginally significant Pearson chi- square, χ 2 (1, N = 69) = 3.46, p =.063, indicated that women made up a higher percentage of the high DERS group (73%) than the low DERS group (51%). Thus, sex was entered as a covariate in the primary aggression analysis to control for its effect. Sad mood induction: A repeated measures ANOVA indicated that sad mood was significantly increased following the sad mood induction for all participants, F(1,67) = 65.70, p <.001. The interaction between group and mood was not significant, indicating that the high vs. low DERS groups did not differ in how much the induction increased sad mood. PSAP: As evidence that using the PSAP for ten minutes is a valid measure of aggression, the Pearson correlation between trait aggression, measured with the AQ, and number of “attack” button presses in the PSAP was found to be significant, r(69) =.283, p =.018. Results Study Background Methods 1 American University, 2 Rutgers University