Abstract

Assessment of defense mechanisms has a longstanding history within the clinical psychology and psychopathology literature. Despite their centrality to clinical practice, there are few self-report measures that assess defenses and, those that do exist, have limitations in addressing individual defenses and levels of defensive functioning. To address this need, we investigated the psychometric properties of the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scale - Self-Report − 30 item (DMRS-SR-30) with a global, community sample of 1,539 participants who responded to an online survey about distress and coping. Exploratory factor analysis found a three-factor model for the DMRS-SR-30 – mature, mental inhibition and avoidance, and immature-depressive. Internal consistency was high for the Overall Defensive Functioning (ODF) and the three extracted factors with coefficient alphas ranging from .75 to .90. Examination of concurrent validity with a commonly used measure of defensive functioning found significant relationships in the predicted directions. The group of immature defenses had the strongest concurrent validity (r = .50). Finally, correlations with external criteria – including psychological distress and adverse childhood experiences – supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the DMRS-SR-30. The three factor structure of the DMRS-SR-30 has good psychometric properties. Limitations and directions for future research, as well as clinical implications, are described.

摘要

防御机制的评估在临床心理学和精神病理学文献中有着悠久的历史。尽管它们在临床实践中处于中心地位，但很少有评估防御的自我报告措施，而且，那些确实存在的措施在解决个人防御和防御功能水平方面存在局限性。为了满足这一需求，我们调查了防御机制评定量表的心理测量特性 - 自我报告 - 30 项 (DMRS-SR-30)，全球社区样本为 1,539 名参与者，他们对一项关于痛苦和应对的在线调查做出了回应。探索性因素分析发现了 DMRS-SR-30 的三因素模型——成熟、精神抑制和回避以及不成熟-抑郁。整体防御功能 (ODF) 的内部一致性很高，三个提取的系数 alpha 范围从 0.75 到 0.90。使用常用的防御功能测量方法检查并发有效性，发现预测方向存在显着关系。一组不成熟的防御具有最强的同时效度（r = .50）。最后，与外部标准（包括心理困扰和不良童年经历）的相关性支持 DMRS-SR-30 的聚合效度和判别效度。DMRS-SR-30 的三因素结构具有良好的心理测量特性。描述了未来研究的局限性和方向，以及临床意义。