Rumination & Distress in Bulimia & Personality

 

This online-study looks at the relationship between personality traits and dysregulated behaviours (those that do not fall within the conventionally accepted range of behavioural responses). If you agree to take part in this study you will be asked to answer a number of short questionnaires that should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Uclan Psychology Year 1 and Year 2 students will receive 2 participation points.

I will be assessing groups of personality traits that interfere with how individuals function. These groups of traits are lifelong behaviour patterns and are often referred to as personality disorders. The study assesses several groups of traits, but the specific traits that this study is interested in are those that are related to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Bulimia: emotionally unstable and impulsive traits and behaviours, such as impulsivity, depressiveness, mood swings and relationship difficulties.

The study does not use clinical interviews to conduct diagnoses. This study only uses self-report questionnaires to assess your perceptions of specific traits that are characteristic of BPD and Bulimia. The scores on these questionnaires have been found to relate to actual diagnosis of these disorders, however, the self-report measures do not diagnose these disorders. The questionnaires cannot be viewed as providing a clinical diagnosis as a trained clinician would be required to carry out an assessment to diagnose these disorders.

The questionnaires cover sensitive issues, including self-harm and suicidal feelings, physical violence and abuse, eating behaviours, your past criminal activity, sexual behaviour and past sexual experiences. If you find any of these issues uncomfortable, sensitive or upsetting, remember that you are under no obligation to take part and may withdraw at any point whilst completing the questionnaires. You can withdraw by discontinuing with the questionnaires. However, please remember that your responses for each page are saved after you click the navigation button and successfully advance to the next survey page. Therefore, once you have clicked on the navigation button your right to withdraw your responses which you entered for that page will no longer apply.

Your name and/or your identity will not be recorded, the only details I will request from you is your gender and age. Only people with a legitimate professional need (i.e. academics and researchers) will see your completed questionnaire, and the information you provide will be used to write reports and may be presented in journal articles and at conferences. At no point will you be identified in this report because the information you provide will be numerical and will be information about the group of participants to which you belong, rather than you personally.

By submitting this online questionnaire you are indicating that you understand what participation in this study entails and that you agree to be a participant in this study. Should you wish to withdraw from the study, you may do so at any time. If you want to quit the questionnaire please simply click next at the bottom of each page until you get to the end of the survey. You can then click “done” to leave the survey, but remember that due to the anonymous nature of the study, any data entered from previously submitted pages cannot be withdrawn.

Thank you for your help.

If you have any questions concerning the research procedure, you can contact me via the details below.

Raabia Ahsan
School of Psychology, Darwin Building
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
PR1 2HE
RAhsan@uclan.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Kathryn Gardner
School of Psychology, Darwin Building
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
PR1 2HE
KJGardner@uclan.ac.uk