P. Sammallahti et al., DOES DEFENSE STYLE VARY WITH SEVERITY OF MENTAL DISORDER - AN EMPIRICAL-ASSESSMENT, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 90(4), 1994, pp. 290-294
Bond's Defense Style Questionnaire was administered to control subject
s from the general population (n = 50) and to psychiatric outpatients
with neurosis (n = 42), high-level personality disorder (n = 37) and l
ow-level personality disorder (n = 22). Factor analysis yielded 4 defe
nse styles ranging on a continuum from immature to mature; the reliabi
lities of the subscales as measured with Cronbach's alpha were adequat
e. Three of the styles - the mature, neurotic and immature - were simi
lar to the styles in Bond's original study, but the fourth style consi
sted of items reflecting inhibition instead of omnipotence as in the o
riginal study. The level of defense maturity varied with severity of d
isorder. The construct and criterion validity of the measure are discu
ssed.