A correlational comparison of defense mechanism measures: the Defense Mechanism Inventory and the Blacky Defense Preference Inventory

Pathways of ego development: Contributions to maladaptation and adjustment

This article investigates the impact of ego development on the course of psychiatric illness in a group of 37 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents ages 12 to 16. The subjects, 21 males and 16 females, were evaluated at time of admission and again after 9 months of hospitalization. Using the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test (Loevinger, Wessler, & Redmore, 1970), two ego pathway groups were defined: progressors, those subjects who had advanced at least one-half stage in ego development, and nonprogressors, those who did not progress at least one-half state in ego development. Significant differences in clinical course were found between the two groups. Progressors demonstrated more significant decreases in psychiatric symptoms as measured by the Achenbach and Edelbrock (1987) Youth Self Report and had a significant change in their use of coping and defense processes compared with the nonprogressors. The findings are discussed in the context of a constructivist approach to developmental psychopathology.

Development of a short form of the adolescent version of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory

This article describes the construction of a short form of the adolescent version of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI; Gleser & Ihilevich, 1969; Ihilevich & Gleser, 1986). The DMI is a paper-and-pencil test for which subjects are asked to describe their reactions to 10 hypothetical dilemmas. The responses involve a forced choice method in which each of the alternative responses represent one of five defense clusters entitled Turning Against the Object, Principalization, Turning Against the Self, Reversal, and Projection. Two hundred ninety-five adolescent psychiatric patients (122 boys and 173 girls) ages 12-16 were administered the adolescent form of the DMI. Based on an analysis of each of the 10 dilemma stories, a 6-story short form was devised. Correlations between this short form and the long form of the DMI ranged from .90 to .95 on the five defense scales, with no significant effect of gender. Internal reliability estimates of the short form scales were also favorable. These results indicate that the short form of the adolescent DMI is an acceptable substitute for the lengthier inventory from which it was derived and is more utilizable in clinical and research settings.

A systematic inquiry into recollections of childhood experience and their relationship to adult defence mechanisms

The relationships between childhood experience, measured by the PBI, and adult defence mechanisms, evaluated through the DMI, were examined in 114 subjects. There were modest but significant correlations between the primitive defences of 'turning against others' and 'projection' on the one hand, and a lack of parental care, as experienced by the subjects, on the other. 'Principalisation' (e.g. intellectualisation, isolation and rationalisation) and 'reversal' (e.g. negation, reaction formation, denial and repression) were positively associated with parental care. These findings account for only a small portion of the variance but show that, as with certain personality traits, actual or perceived childhood experience contributes in a recognisable fashion to the patterns of adult defences and behaviour.