Defense use and defense understanding in children

This study investigated the relation between children's use of defense mechanisms and their understanding of those defenses. We hypothesized that, once a child understands how a particular defense functions, the use of that defense will no longer be successful and will be replaced by another defense mechanism that is not yet understood. Defense use was assessed from the Thematic Appreception Test (TAT) stories told by 122 children; defense understanding was determined from the children's understanding of stories portraying defenses. The results indicated that younger children (mean age = 7-8) used the defense of denial more than the older children (mean age = 9-11). Older children understood the functioning of denial and projection better than the younger children. A comparison of children who did and did not understand a defense showed that younger children who understood the functioning of denial were less likely to themselves use denial. Likewise, older children who understood the functioning of projection were less likely to use this defense.     

Defense Mechanisms Development in Children,Adolescents, and Late Adolescents

To replicate and extend Cramer's (1987) original cross-sectional study concerning the development of defense mechanisms, the Thematic Apperception Test responses of 148 students in Grades 2, 5, 8, 11, and college freshmen were collected and scored for denial, projection, and identification using Cramer's Defense Mechanisms Manual (1991). Our results supported the notion that the relative use of denial and projection decreases and identification increases as a function of grade level. The findings provide additional support for the psychoanalytic view (Freud, 1966) of an ontogenetic developmental line of defense.     

Defense mechanisms, behavior, and affect in young adulthood

The relationship between defense mechanism use, observed behavior, and affect was investigated in a sample of 91 young adults. Defense mechanisms were assessed using Cramer's (1991a) Defense Mechanism Manual for TAT stories; behavior was based on observer Q-sort ratings (Block, 1978). The findings show that men and women who rely on the immature defense of denial at age 23 show multiple signs of behavioral immaturity, as well as anxiety. In contrast, extensive use of projection was related to a suspicious, hyperalert personality style, including anxiety and depression, in men, but to a sociable, nonwary, nondepressed style in women. The use of the mature defense of identification, by women, was related to behavior characterized by maturity, social competence, and the absence of depressive symptoms.     

Evidence for Change in Children's Use of Defense Mechanisms

ABSTRACT Using a cohort-longitudinal design, children's use of the defeneses of denial. projection, and identification was assessed at four points over a 2-year time span, covering the age period from 6 years, 6 months to 9 years, 5 months. The results showed a clear decrease in the use of denial from early to middle childhood, a sharp increase in the use of projection, and an increase in the use of identification. These findings, predicted by a theory of defense mechanism development, are consistent with cross-sectional results reported previously.     

Identification and the development of competence: a 44-year longitudinal study from late adolescence to late middle age

The role of defense mechanisms in the development of planful competence (J. A. Clausen, 1993) was studied over a period of 44 years in participants from the Oakland Growth Study, who are part of the Intergenerational Studies of the Institute of Human Development. Planful competence was assessed on 4 occasions, from late adolescence (ages 15-18) to late middle age (age 62). The use of the defense mechanisms of denial, projection, and identification was assessed in late adolescence, based on Thematic Apperception Test (H. A. Murray, 1943) stories coded with the Defense Mechanism Manual (P. Cramer, 1991b). In late adolescence, the defense mechanism of identification was found to be positively related to competence, whereas the less mature defense of projection was related to lower levels of competence. For the group as a whole, hierarchical linear modeling (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) indicated that competence increased across the adult years, with a modest decline at late middle age. Individual differences for intraindividual change in competence were related to the use of identification: high use of identification in late adolescence was associated with relative stability in adult competence, whereas low use of identification in adolescence predicted changes in adult competence.     

Longitudinal study of defense mechanisms: late childhood to late adolescence

Based on longitudinal data from the Institute of Human Development Intergenerational Study, the use and change in defense mechanisms of more than 150 individuals, as assessed from TAT stories, was studied across ages 11, 12, and 18. The findings of this study, based on an earlier generation, were generally consistent with cross-sectional findings from current samples, showing that the defenses of projection and identification were used more frequently than denial at all three ages and that the use of projection and identification increased from early to late adolescence. However, unlike current findings, the 18-year-olds did not show greater use of identification than of projection, perhaps due to IQ differences between this community sample and the samples of more recent studies.     

Defense mechanisms and self-reported violence toward partners and strangers

We examined the relationship between defense mechanisms and self-reported violence toward partners and toward strangers in a sample of college student men. Fifty men completed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) and the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979), a self-report measure of strategies (including violence) for resolving conflicts with partners and strangers. The TAT responses were coded for defense mechanisms with the Defense Mechanisms Manual (Cramer, 1991b). The relative use of identification was negatively correlated (r = -.49, p <.001), and the relative use of projection was positively correlated (r =.49, p <.001) with the most extreme CTS report of violence toward partners. The relative use of identification was negatively correlated with the most extreme CTS report of violence toward strangers (r = -.34, p <.05). The relative use of denial was positively correlated with the most extreme CTS report of violence toward strangers (r =.32, p <.05).     

Assessing ego defense mechanisms by questionnaire: psychometric properties and psychopathological correlates of the Greek version of the Plutchik's Life Style Index

The Life Style Index (LSI; Plutchik, Kellerman, & Conte, 1979 ) was designed to assess defense mechanisms, assuming that their use is related to specific affective states and diagnostic concepts. We aimed to assess the psychometric properties of its Greek version and its relation to psychopathological symptoms. The LSI was back-translated into Greek and was administered to 1,261 participants. Six factors were identified, 5 of them largely corresponding to the original version's defenses (compensation, denial, projection, reaction formation, and repression). The sixth factor, named regressive emotionality, included mainly the original scale's regression and displacement factors. Test-retest reliabilities, internal consistencies, and construct validity were quite satisfactory. Most defenses were able to discriminate psychiatric patients from healthy participants and were associated with specific psychopathological symptoms in a theoretically expected mode, further supporting the validity of the Greek version. Our findings suggest that the LSI, based on both psychoevolutionary and psychoanalytic theory, can provide a solid ground for assessing ego defense mechanisms.     

Defense Mechanisms in Mania,Bipolar Depression and Unipolar Depression

The present study compared the use of defense mechanisms in ten bipolar manic, ten bipolar depressed and ten unipolar depressed patients. The defense mechanisms were assessed by two methods: TAT stories scored by Defense Mechanism Manual and Defense Mechanism Rating Scale ratings of psychodynamic interviews. The severity of symptoms was assessed by Beck Depression Inventory for depressed patients and Young’s Manic Rating Scale for manic patients. Both bipolar manic and depressed groups used the defense mechanism of denial, borderline level defenses and immature defenses significantly more than the unipolar depression group. The manic group showed greater dependence on narcissistic level defenses as compared to the other two groups. Positive relationships were found between severity of manic symptoms and the defense mechanisms of denial as well as the narcissistic level defenses. The bipolar depression group also used more action level defenses as compared to the unipolar depression group. The unipolar depression group scored higher on the defense mechanism of identification and adaptive level defenses as compared to the manic group. A negative correlation was found between the severity of depressive symptoms for unipolar depression group and the defense mechanism of identification. The neurotic level defenses were used most frequently by unipolar depression group, followed by the bipolar depression group and manic group. Some of these findings are in consonance with the psychoanalytic understanding of mania and depression.     

Introduction to object relations group psychotherapy.

The author shows how object relations group therapy focuses on primitive defense mechanisms that shape the group-entity image or "basic assumptions group." Such primitive defense mechanisms as splitting, projective identification, omnipotent denial, projection, and introjection are the mental resources to protect the endangered self and the threatened objects from the fantasized imminent destruction. Object relations group psychotherapy addresses those defenses and the underlying psychotic anxieties, offering members opportunities to search for other ways to respond to their primitive fears. The author introduces two extensive clinical vignettes to illustrate how object relations group methods are different from other group-centered psychoanalytic techniques. He concludes by commenting on future theoretical refinements and on the problems in the professional practice of this modality.     

Anger and the Use of Defense Mechanisms in College Students

ABSTRACT It was hypothesized that experimentally induced anger would result in an increased use of defense mechanisms in college students. As predicted from the theory of defense mechanism development, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories of angered students showed a higher level of use of projection and identification, and the use of these defenses was significantly correlated with the presence of aggressive content in the stories. The results were consistent with previous studies in showing that the predominant defenses of late adolescents are projection and identification, and that men use more projection than women.     

The Patient-Staff Community Meeting: A Tea Party with the Mad Hatter

The author shows how object relations group therapy focuses on primitive defense mechanisms that shape the group-entity image or “basic assumptions group.” Such primitive defense mechanisms as splitting, projective identification, omnipotent denial, projection, and introjection are the mental resources to protect the endangered self and the threatened objects from the fantasized imminent destruction. Object relations group psychotherapy addresses those defenses and the underlying psychotic anxieties, offering members opportunities to search for other ways to respond to their primitive fears. The author introduces two extensive clinical vignettes to illustrate how object relations group methods are different from other group-centered psychoanalytic techniques. He concludes by commenting on future theoretical refinements and on the problems in the professional practice of this modality.     

Use of the TAT to measure change in defense mechanisms following intensive psychotherapy

Changes in the use of defense mechanisms (denial, projection, and identification) were examined over a period of approximately 15 months of intensive treatment of 90 seriously disturbed young adults who were hospitalized in an intensive, open, long-term treatment setting. Patients independently judged to have primarily an anaclitic or an introjective personality configuration (Blatt, 1974; Blatt & Shichman, 1983) were assessed for psychiatric symptoms and aspects of interpersonal behavior both on admission and after an average of 15 months of treatment. Findings based on an independent assessment of TAT protocols at these two times indicated a significant (p less than .05) decline in total use of defenses for the entire sample, but especially for introjective patients. Further, this decline in total use of defenses in the TAT was significantly associated with a reduction in psychiatric symptoms. Also, sex-incongruent patients (anaclitic men and introjective women) were found to use different defenses and to change in ways different from sex-congruent patients (anaclitic women and introjective men).     

Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement, Undoing, Isolation, Sublimation, and Denial

Recent studies in social psychology are reviewed for evidence relevant to seven Freudian defense mechanisms. This work emphasizes normal populations, moderate rather than extreme forms of defense, and protection of self-esteem against threat. Reaction formation, isolation, and denial have been amply shown in studies, and they do seem to serve defensive functions. Undoing, in the sense of counterfactual thinking, is also well documented but does not serve to defend against the threat. Projection is evident, but the projection itself may be aby-product of defense rather than part of the defensive response itself. Displacement is not well supported in any meaningful sense, although emotions and physical arousal states do carry over from one situation to the next. No evidence of sublimation was found.     

Use of the TAT to Measure Change in Defense Mechanisms Following Intensive Psychotherapy

Changes in the use of defense mechanisms (denial, projection, and identification) were examined over a period of approximately 15 months of intensive treatment of 90 seriously disturbed young adults who were hospitalized in an intensive, open, long-term treatment setting. Patients independently judged to have primarily an anaclitic or an introjective personality configuration (Blatt, 1974, Blatt & Shichman, 1983) were assessed for psychiatric symptoms and aspects of interpersonal behavior both on admission and after an average of 15 months of treatment. Findings based on an independent assessment of TAT protocols at these two times indicated a significant (p < .05) decline in total use of defenses for the entire sample, but especially for introjective patients. Further, this decline in total use of defenses in the TAT was significantly associated with a reduction in psychiatric symptoms. Also, sex-incongruent patients (anaclitic men and introjective women) were found to rise different defenses and to change in ways different from sex-congruent patients (anaclitic women and introjective men).     

Defensive externality and blame projection following failure.

This study focuses upon the relationship between internal-external control and defensive blame projection. Trust was used as a moderator variable for making differential predictions concerning the behavior of two subgroups of externals: defensive externals, whose externality is presumed to reflect primarily a verbal technique of defense, and congruent externals, whose externality reflects a more genuine belief that most outcomes are determined by forces beyond their personal control. As predicted, defensive externals showed a stronger tendency than did congruent externals and internals to resort to blame projection following failure at an achievement task. There were no group differences in attribution following task success. Defensive externals were found to be more responsive to negative feedback than were congruent externals.     

Locus of control and effects of failure on perfomance and perceived competence

Reactions to related performance feedback of 117 internal and external eighth-grade children were investigated under conditions which made denial of personal responsibility for outcomes difficult. Both internals and externals were equally pleased by success feedback and displeased by failure and their competence judgement was influenced by the feedback received. However, internals exhibited more effective coping with failure than did externals. They improved their performance following failure feedback relatively more than after success and no external feedback conditions, and their percieved competance did not decrease in comparison with externals.     

Marital systems of agoraphobic women: contributions of husbands' denial and projection

The problems of measuring psychological concepts such as repression and denial are discussed in the context of the marital systems of agoraphobic women and the credibility of a couples approach to treatment. Repression, denial and projection in husbands were inferred from systematic measurement of mood, hostility and symptom changes after intensive behaviour therapy for the agoraphobia. The results suggested that the agoraphobic symptoms of about half of the women were reinforced by their husbands' habitual denial of affect and of personal problems; in this group, worthwhile symptomatic improvement occurred only in those women whose husbands relinquished repression and denial as major defence mechanisms, acknowledging their own personal problems, and allowing the patients to take more responsibility for their agoraphobia. The marital systems of the remaining couples were characterized by incompatible ways of dealing with hostility, with husbands' abnormal extrapunitiveness reinforcing patients' self-blame, which inhibited problem-solving and hence indirectly perpetuated the agoraphobia.     

Defense mechanisms: An approach from the perspective of personal construct psychology

The psychoanalytic concept of defense mechanisms was theoretically and empirically approached from the perspective of personal construct psychology, in an attempt to investigate its cognitive components. Thirty neurotic clients of the Psychotherapeutic Center in Stuttgart, Federal Republic of Germany, were investigated by means of the Questionnaire for Defense Categories (Ehlers & Peter, 1989) and the Repertory Grid Test (Kelly, 1955). Tight construing, extremity of emotional evaluation, construal of the symptom as having positive implications, and construed similarity between certain aspects of the self were observed in clients who frequently used the defense mechanisms denial, rationalization, and turning against the object.     

Girls' use of defense mechanisms following peer rejection

This study explores the relation between girls' social adjustment and their use of defense mechanisms. We recruited girls representing four sociometric status classifications (rejected, neglected, average, and popular), and assessed their use of defense mechanisms both before and after encountering a peer rejection experience in the laboratory. We hypothesized that increasing degrees of social maladjustment would be associated with higher levels of defense use, particularly after encountering a rejection experience. Our results supported these hypotheses. There was a significant negative relationship between social adjustment and defense use, both prior to and immediately following the rejection experience. Categorical analyses revealed that rejected and neglected girls used more defenses following the rejection experience than did popular and average girls.