Mature and immature defenses. A study of repressors and trait anxiety groups

Carlsson, IngegerdLund University,Lunds universitet,Institutionen för psykologi,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Department of Psychology,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences (författare)

To investigate defense mechanisms, repressors (n= 14), highly anxious (n = 37) and low anxious (n = 7) groups were tested with the Meta Contrast Technique (Smith, Johnson, Almgren & Johanson, 2001). The division into repressors and anxiety groups was made on a larger group (N = 140), which was also investigated with respect to experienced access to preconscious processes, here operationalized as memory for dreams. Results: The repressors got higher scores on immature defense mechanisms than the highly or low anxious groups (p = .04 versus p < .05). The repressors as well as the highly anxious group were higher on a measure of overall defense than the low anxious group (p < .05 in both comparisons). Regarding the separate defense categories, a significant difference was found for repression, which was more frequent in the highly anxious than in the low anxious group (p = .003). Memory for dreams differed only in the men. The male repressors scored significantly lower on dream memory than the highly anxious men (p < .02). The immature defensive structure in the repressors was discussed in terms of regressive reactions, speculatively due to a lack of symbolic functioning concerning anxiety-arousing areas, i.e. alexithymia.

Neuman, Fredrik (författare)
Smith, Gudmund (redaktör/utgivare)
Carlsson, Ingegerd (redaktör/utgivare)
Institutionen för psykologiSamhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar (creator_code:org_t)

Ingår i:Process and Personality. Actualization of the personal world with process-oriented methods, s. 127-1429783938793893

Av författaren/redakt...: Carlsson, Ingege ...; Neuman, Fredrik; Smith, Gudmund

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