Rejection sensitivity in borderline personality disorder and the cognitive–affective personality system: A meta-analytic review

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is one the of core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS) might represent an alternative framework for analyzing the relationship between RS and BPD. The current meta-analytic review (N = 39 studies) aims at evaluating how, and to what extent, CAPS-RS process dynamics (i.e., rejection expectancies, encoding processes, and affect reactions) are related to BPD. The results showed a large difference between BPD and non-BPD subjects in rejection expectancies across several situations. These findings were replicated when considering encoding processes and affective reactions, especially in relation to social inclusion situations. Therefore, it can be argued that RS process dynamics might reflect CAPS principles explaining personality pathology, especially BPD.