Hyphantis T, Floros G D, Goulia P, Iconomou G, Assimakopoulos K
Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
Psychiatriki. 2011 Jul-Sep;22(3):207-20.
The Life Style Index (LSI) was designed to assess defense mechanisms, assuming that their use is related to specific emotional states and diagnostic concepts. Aiming to further investigate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the LSI, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of specific defense mechanisms with dimensions of psychological distress and hostility features in three different populations. The sample comprised 1261 adults (410 healthy participants, 723 medical patients and 128 psychiatric patients). Along with defense mechanisms (LSI), Psychological Distress (General Health Questionnaire, GHQ-28) and Hostility features (Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, HDHQ) were also assessed. The results showed that increased psychological distress is related with increased use of all defenses except Denial, with which psychological distress is negatively associated. Regression is constantly related with psychological distress and differentiates psychiatric patients from the other groups of participants, while Compensation and Reaction Formation are related to depressive symptomatology. In medical patients, Repression was found to increase the physical dimension of psychological distress and the social dysfunction. On the contrary,Denial was negatively associated with these dimensions of psychological distress. In the psychiatric patient and healthy participant samples, Projection plays the most detrimental role. Regarding hostility and direction of hostility, those who were found to introvert their hostility presented with higher scores in Denial, indicating that they possibly 'deny' their hostility, and the degree of the Denial was found to be negatively associated with the degree of Introverted Hostility. Those who directed their hostility towards the others, presented with higher rates of Projection, while neither Denial nor Reaction Formation seemed sufficient enough to temper the degree of Extroverted Hostility. In conclusion,the present results strengthen further the validity of the Greek version of the LSI and provide additional evidence about the relation of defence mechanisms with dimensions of psychological distress and the direction of hostility in different populations, indicating that the empirical assessment of defense mechanisms can contribute significantly in the study of the factors that mediate or moderate the course or the outcome of medical or psychiatric disorders.
生活方式指数（LSI）旨在评估防御机制，假定其使用与特定情绪状态和诊断概念相关。为了进一步研究希腊版LSI的心理测量特性，本研究的目的是调查三种不同人群中特定防御机制与心理困扰维度和敌意特征之间的关系。样本包括1261名成年人（410名健康参与者、723名医学患者和128名精神科患者）。除了防御机制（LSI）外，还评估了心理困扰（一般健康问卷，GHQ - 28）和敌意特征（敌意与敌意指向问卷，HDHQ）。结果表明，除否认外，心理困扰增加与所有防御机制的使用增加相关，而心理困扰与否认呈负相关。回归与心理困扰始终相关，并将精神科患者与其他参与者群体区分开来，而代偿和反向形成与抑郁症状相关。在医学患者中，压抑被发现会增加心理困扰的身体维度和社会功能障碍。相反，否认与心理困扰的这些维度呈负相关。在精神科患者和健康参与者样本中，投射起最有害的作用。关于敌意和敌意指向，那些被发现将敌意内向化的人在否认方面得分较高，表明他们可能“否认”自己的敌意，并且发现否认程度与内向敌意程度呈负相关。那些将敌意指向他人的人，投射率较高，而否认和反向形成似乎都不足以缓和外向敌意的程度。总之，本研究结果进一步加强了希腊版LSI的有效性，并提供了关于防御机制与不同人群中心理困扰维度和敌意指向之间关系的额外证据，表明防御机制的实证评估可以对介导或调节医学或精神疾病病程或结果的因素研究做出重大贡献。
