Emptiness, personality dysfunction, and emotion dysregulation: An experience sampling study

Investigations of the construct of emptiness often include vague, overlapping, and contradictory operationalizations that have impacted further theoretical and empirical understanding. This includes referring to emptiness as a static, trait-like phenomenon, without measurement of the individual instability that may exist in this experiential state. Furthermore, studies often restrict the examination of emptiness to those with borderline personality disorder, despite research supporting its relationship to other disorders and to personality functioning in general. The present study sought to explore emptiness at both its trait- and state-level determinants utilizing an experience sampling design in 120 community members. Specifically, this study investigated personality dysfunction in both interpersonal and self-domains, identity disturbance, and emotion dysregulation in predicting between-person mean and instability in emptiness, as well as within-person emptiness across a 14-day study period. Results supported strong relationships between within-person sadness and emptiness. Furthermore, mean-level emptiness was associated with both personality dysfunction and identity disturbance, while emptiness instability was additionally associated with emotion dysregulation. Implications for construct clarity are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).