Retrospective research is a research method in which the factors related to the development of a particular outcome (for example, an illness or disorder), are studied after the outcome has already occurred.
An example of retrospective research in borderline personality disorder (BPD) would be a study that identified individuals with and without BPD, and then asked both groups of research participants about the occurrence traumatic experiences in their childhood. Studies of this type have found that people with BPD report childhood trauma at greater rates than those without BPD.
One drawback of this method is that it is subject to recall bias. That is, the information that is recalled by participants may be biased by their current condition. In the above example, it may be that participants with BPD, who experience very intense emotions, are more likely to interpret past events as traumatic than people without BPD.
