A nurse is working with a client with borderline personality disorder. Within the first hour of the shift, the client went from laughing and joking with other clients, to getting angry and shouting at these clients, and then crying in their room because “everyone hates me.” This is an example of what feature of borderline personality disorder?

A: Impulsivity refers to acting on urges without considering consequences, which is a feature of borderline personality disorder but not the best description of the scenario. B: Emotional lability, or rapid and intense mood swings, accurately describes the client’s behavior in the scenario. C: Reaction formation involves behaving in a way that is opposite to one’s true feelings, which is not depicted in the scenario. D: Splitting involves viewing people or situations as all good or all bad, which can be a feature of borderline personality disorder but is not the primary feature shown in the scenario.