Abstract

Mentalizing is defined as one’s capacity to think in terms of mental states underlying one’s own and others’ behaviors. It has been posited to develop within the context of a secure attachment relationship and has been linked to a myriad of psychological adjustment variables. Given the scarcity of research on mentalizing in Lebanon, this study aimed to investigate mentalizing in a sample of 293 Lebanese undergraduate students using a novel tool, the Mental State Task (MST). Higher mentalizing scores were found to be positively correlated with self-esteem, neurotic defenses, authenticity and adaptive emotion regulation strategies, as well as negatively correlated with psychological symptomatology. This study also provided descriptions of the six mental states measured by the MST continuum based on their correlations with related constructs. Findings diverge with the literature in relation to the association between defense styles and MST scores, which were posited to reflect cultural specificities of this sample.

摘要

心理化被定义为一个人根据自己和他人行为背后的心理状态进行思考的能力。它被假定在安全依恋关系的背景下发展，并与无数心理调整变量有关。鉴于黎巴嫩关于心理化研究的稀缺性，本研究旨在使用一种新颖的工具心理状态任务 (MST) 在 293 名黎巴嫩本科生的样本中调查心理化。发现较高的心理化分数与自尊、神经质防御、真实性和适应性情绪调节策略呈正相关，并与心理症状呈负相关。本研究还根据 MST 连续统测量的六种心理状态与相关构念的相关性提供了描述。