Despite the popularity of the study of borderline personality disorder, definition of “Chronic Emptiness” were applied to define the theoretical concept and never met an agreement among evaluators.

First, the preliminary questionnaire was prepared based on the previous studies and the data collected through the in-depth interviews with the people with borderline personality disorder, and the final 18 items were developed through the item analysis. In order to verify the reliability and validity of the emptiness scale, 526 adults from 18 to 40 years of age were tested for internal consistency coefficient, and factor analysis and validity test were conducted.

The internal consistency coefficient of the emptiness scale was very good. As a result of the factor analysis, it was confirmed that it has a single structure. On validity test, emptiness was highly correlated with borderline personality disorder, depression, and suicide ideation.

Emptiness is associated with identity problems, and adolescents tend to do NSSI to deal with emptiness related to identity formation. Until now, the terms of loneliness, solitude, and emptiness have not been sufficiently distinguished, but the distinction between the respective terms has become possible through measuring emptiness. The implications and limitations of this research and subsequent studies discussed.

Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) had been adapted into several languages for use in various countries as a tool to measure hypomanic tendencies. It is widely used to investigate bipolar disorder risk among non-clinical samples. Its usefulness has also been suggested in Korea via recent studies.

The HPS was adapted through a back-translation process by two bilinguist and reviewed by three clinical psychologists. To investigate internal consistency, test-retest, and convergent and concurrent validity of the HPS, 230 normal participants completed a self-report battery on-line. Explanatory factor analysis was performed to examine the factor structure of the HPS.

The adapted HPS showed good internal consistency and test-retest correlations. Validation results showed that people who had higher HPS total scores had more extraversion in social relations and openness to new environments and experiences. The HPS scores also had positive correlations with scores of borderline personality trait, impulsive tendencies, sensation seeking, and grandiosity. People with a stronger hypomanic tendency had more hypomania symptoms and depressive symptoms. Exploratory factor analysis supported two factors: (1) ‘social vitality and self-confidence,’ associated with positive characteristics, and (2) ‘hypomanic-like symptoms,’ associated with negative attributes.

The adapted HPS scores were reliable and valid for measuring hypomanic personalities. Hypomanic personality might have two aspects, one related to usefulness for daily life functioning, and the other vulnerable to psychological problems. The implications and limitations of this research and subsequent studies are discussed.