Personality characteristics associated with psychological reactance

This study compared six different personality disorders on level of psychological reactance. Eighty clients met criteria for inclusion in one of six personality disorder groups, including passive-aggressive, dependent, personality disorder NOS (not otherwise specified), no personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive, and borderline. Instruments included the Therapeutic Reactance Scale (TRS) and the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance (QMPR). Four one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted on the scales and subscales of the two reactance measures. All four ANOVAs were significant, although post hoc tests indicated significant differences only among the more extreme groups. The personality disorders were generally ordered on reactance level according to predictions derived from the theory of separation-individuation.