Existing research (MacMurray, 1976; Teitelman, Glass, Blyn & Jenning, 1979; Saloff & Millward, 1983) has suggested that mothers of borderline personality disorder patients exhibit the following characteristics: emotional aloofness (coldness); emotional instability, and controlling behavior. This study assesses and compares these three characteristics in three samples of mothers: (1) mothers of patients with borderline personality disorder; (2) mothers of patients with schizophrenia; and (3) mothers of non-patient normals.
This study assesses and compares three personality traits in three groups of mothers: (1) mothers of patients with borderline personality disorder; (2) mothers of patients with schizophrenia; and (3) mothers of non-patient normals. The three assessed personality characteristics are emotional aloofness (coldness); emotional instability, and controlling behavior. This research is based on theory related to: (1) how traits of mothers influence offspring in general; (2) how mothers' traits produce borderline and schizophrenic disorder specifically; and (3) measurement of the personality traits of interest. Each of these theoretical components of the study is discussed below.
How Mothers' Traits Influence General Personality Development of Offspring
According to Lange and van der Hart (1983), families constitute social systems, systems in which the way family members interact influence the psychodynamic make-up of offspring (as well as the current psychoemotional state of all family members). This view of the influence of family interaction on the psychology and affective nature of family members has come to be known as Family Systems Theory.
Of specific interest to this study is the specification of those mother-child interpersonal dynamics by which the psychodynamic make-up of offspring are shaped. In this regard, the theoretical writings of Harry Stack Sullivan (1953) are relevant. Sullivan placed a s...