Riding Hostile Waves: the Interplay of Pathological Personality on Momentary Interpersonal Perceptions and Paranoid States.

According to Kernberg’s Object Relation framework, Personality Disorders (PDs) are often characterized by relevant cognitive distortions in the perception of self and others, sustained by rigid and primitive defense mechanisms. Consistently, recent advancements in the diagnostic understanding of PDs propose that paranoia, that is, the individual's misattribution that others intend to cause harm, represents a transdiagnostic feature shared among various PDs (i.e., Paranoid, Schizotypal, Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, and Avoidant PDs) rather than a distinct PD in itself. However, research on the relationship between PDs, paranoid states, and the interpersonal perception of others is still lacking. In the present contribution, we aim to investigate how pathological personality shapes responses of paranoid states in daily life interpersonal interactions through an intensive longitudinal design. In the ongoing study, we aim to involve a community sample of 200 individuals aged between 18 and 35 years. At the baseline, participants are asked to self-report Paranoid, Schizotypal, Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, and Avoidant trait levels. Subsequently, participants respond to smartphone prompts 4 times a day for 7 days. Specifically, participants are required to identify the most significant distressing interpersonal interaction between the current and previous reports and assess paranoid states and momentary cold/dominant perceptions of the other. We expect Paranoid, Schizotypal, Antisocial, and Borderline traits to be highly related to paranoid states in daily interactions. Furthermore, we speculate that the other’s cold and dominant interpersonal perception will be related to increased paranoid states. Moreover, we anticipate that Paranoid, Borderline, Antisocial, and Narcissistic traits will amplify the link between other’s cold and dominant interpersonal perceptions and paranoid states during daily interactions. Results will shed light on the underlying mechanisms of paranoid states in personality pathology, identifying specific interpersonal sensitivities crucial for the therapeutic process.