Are Psychopathic and Borderline Personality Disorder Distinct, or Differently Gendered Expressions of the Same Disorder? An Exploration Using Concept Maps

Abstract

Research findings on gender differences in prevalence and clinician gender bias in the diagnosis of Psychopathic Personality Disorder (PPD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) have led some to suggest that PPD and BPD are not distinct disorders, but rather differently gendered expressions of the same disorder. This paper explores gender differences in conceptualization using prototypicality ratings of PPD and BPD symptoms from the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2004, 2012) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Borderline Personality (CABP; Cook et al., 2013). Findings indicated that symptoms of PPD and BPD are gendered, but did not appear consistent with the view that PPD and BPD are differently gendered variants of the same disorder. Unfortunately, the implications of our findings for clinical practice are not clear at this time. Future research should explore effective methods to mitigate clinician bias and/or explore the development of gender-fair measures.