Empirical study of self-rated defense styles

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Personality Studies

Background:

• Defensive styles are crucial in psychological functioning.
• Previous research suggested defenses might form distinct patterns.
• Understanding the adaptiveness of defense mechanisms is key to mental health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct and validate a self-administered questionnaire for assessing habitual defensive styles.
• To test the hypotheses that defensive mechanisms cluster into styles and are rankable by adaptiveness.

Main Methods:

• Developed a self-administered questionnaire on perceived defensive style.
• Utilized measures of ego adaptation and ego development.
• Sample included 98 psychiatric patients and 111 nonpatients.

Main Results:

• Strong evidence supports the validity of the questionnaire for measuring perceived defensive style.
• Defenses were found to cluster into distinct styles.
• These styles form a developmental continuum from maladaptive to adaptive patterns.

Conclusions:

• The developed questionnaire is a valid tool for assessing perceived defensive styles.
• Defensive styles represent a coherent construct that can be empirically studied.
• A hierarchy of defensive styles exists, ranging from maladaptive to adaptive functioning.