Lt. Nghe et Jr. Mahalik, Examining racial identity statuses as predictors of psychological defensesin African American college students, J COUN PSYC, 48(1), 2001, pp. 10-16
The authors examined the relationship between racial identity statuses and
the use of psychological defenses in 80 African American college students w
ho completed the Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. E. Helms & T. A.
Parham, 1996), Defense Mechanism Inventory (G. C. Gleser & D. Ihilevich, 19
69), and the Defense Style Questionnaire-40 (G. Andrews, M. Singh, & M. Bon
d, 1993). The canonical analysis indicated that pre-encounter and encounter
ego statuses were positively related to neurotic psychological defenses as
well as defenses of principalization and reversal. The immersion ego statu
s was positively related to immature psychological defenses as well as turn
ing against object and projection. The emersion ego status was positively r
elated to mature psychological defenses as well as turning against object a
nd projection. The authors believe these results provide additional support
for J. E. Helms's (1995) racial identity model, because racial identity eg
o statuses predicted how African Americans managed painful affect. The disc
ussion also focuses on implications of these results for counseling and fut
ure research.