Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
J Pers Assess. 2010 May;92(3):241-53. doi: 10.1080/00223891003670190.
Psychoanalytic theories describe defense mechanisms and object relations as psychological structures that have functions vital to personality regulation. In theory, these structures develop in stages and emerge as a coordinated, stable system in early adulthood. However, different levels of maturity of systemic function predominate in various individuals so that people exhibit levels of personality organization (LPO; Kernberg, 1975) differing in degree of maturity. Moreover, the various LPO of adults parallel various developmental stages of maturity of these structures in childhood and predispose to varying psychopathologies. We call this the parallelism hypothesis: Adult LPO parallels the stages of childhood development of these structures. In 2 studies (Study 1, students, n = 301; Study 2, diagnosed and presumed normal people, n = 155), we compared indicators of LPO with relative maturity of defenses and object relations using Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) scales (Cramer, 1991; Westen, Lohr, Silk, Kerber, & Goodrich, 1989). We compared scores to other indicators of participants' LPO. The parallelism hypothesis was largely supported in both studies.
精神分析理论将防御机制和客体关系描述为对人格调节至关重要的心理结构。从理论上讲，这些结构分阶段发展，并在成年早期以协调、稳定的系统出现。然而，不同个体的系统功能成熟程度不同，因此人们表现出不同程度的人格组织（LPO；Kernberg，1975）。此外，成年人的各种 LPO 与这些结构在儿童时期的成熟程度的各个发展阶段相平行，并倾向于不同的精神病理学。我们称之为平行假说：成人 LPO 与这些结构在儿童时期发展的阶段平行。在两项研究中（研究 1，学生，n=301；研究 2，诊断和假定正常的人，n=155），我们使用主题统觉测验（Murray，1943）量表（Cramer，1991；Westen，Lohr，Silk，Kerber 和 Goodrich，1989）比较了 LPO 的指标与防御和客体关系的相对成熟度。我们将分数与参与者的其他 LPO 指标进行了比较。这一平行假说在两项研究中都得到了广泛支持。
