Chronic Self-Destructiveness and Self-Defeating Personality: Similarities and Differences

This study attempts to determine whether the Chronic Self-Destructiveness Scale (CSDS; Kelley, Byrne, et al., 1985) would be better described as a measure of impulsiveness or self-defeating behavior in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., Rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) diagnostic sense. Subjects completed the CSDS, the Self-Defeating Scale (Schill, 1990), and measures of restraint, distress, and psychopathy. Based on the correlations among these scales, we suggest that the CSDS is better described as a measure of impulsiveness, poor judgment, and immediate gratification, rather than a measure of Self-Defeating Personality, which keeps the individual in a victim position.