THE CONCURRENT VALIDITY OF 3 SELF-REPORT MEASURES OF BORDERLINE PERSONALITY

The recent accumulation of self-report measures of borderline personal ity disorder (BPD) affords the opportunity to evaluate both the constr uct validity of the concept and the quality of these measures. This st udy examines the relationship among three recently developed self-repo rt instruments for assessing BPD from the Personality Assessment Inven tory (PAI; Morey, 1991), the MMPI Personality Disorders Scales (MPD; M orey, Waugh, & Blashfield, 1985), and the Bell Object Relations Invent ory (BORI; Bell, Billington, & Becker, 1986). Data on the three measur es were provided by 119 undergraduate subjects from a southeastern uni versity. A correlational analysis addresses the convergence of these m easures of BPD, their divergence from measures of different but relate d traits, and their independence from variance due to method. Applicat ion of the Campbell-Fiske (1959) criteria indicates adequate convergen ce for all the BPD measures but a lack of discriminant validity for th e BORI scales. The fit of the data to a structural model of construct validity is tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and these resul ts are consistent with the hypothesis of a latent borderline trait fac tor independent of measurement method factors. In sum, the construct v alidity of the borderline personality concept using self-report method ologies receives support, and a strong association between borderline personality and paranoid phenomena is also suggested.