Behaviour vs. perception: An investigation into the components of emotional invalidation

The negative effects of emotionally invalidating environments are theorized by the biosocial theory of borderline personality disorder to be vast and severe. However, findings from studies on the impact of emotional invalidation (EI) vary, perhaps due to different operational definitions of EI. The current investigation seeks to explore the relationship between the objective behavioural observations of EI and recipient's subjective perceptions of experiencing these behaviours.

First, 58 participants watched scripted interactions between a confederate and a mock participant and identified the presence of invalidating and/or neutral behaviours. Next, 92 participants engaged in one-on-one interactions with a confederate utilizing the same scripted interactions observed by the first set of participants.

While the first set of participants identified invalidating behaviours accurately and consistently, the participants who experienced the behaviours demonstrated more variability in their perceptions of the behaviours as emotionally invalidating.

These preliminary findings demonstrate that the objective existence of emotionally invalidating behaviours are likely not the same as the experienced perception of EI across individuals, highlighting the need to examine how EI is operationally defined and measured. Future research should examine what individual characteristics may play a role in perceiving behaviours as emotionally invalidating. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.