Defense preference and stutterers' speech disfluencies: implications for the nature of the disorder.

Psychological defense mechanism preference was assessed in 16 adult stutterers. From this group, two subgroups of six subjects each were identified by their opposite extremes in defensive style: (1) expressive defenders; (2) avoidance defenders. Subsequently, these subgroups were found to be significantly different in measures of stuttering frequency and disfluency type. The expressive defenders showed higher frequency stuttering than the avoidance defenders (21.5% vs. 4.66%) while the avoidance subgroup showed preference for the use of accessory-type disfluencies; that is, interjections, phrase repetitions, and whole word repetitions. The possibility that the speech disfluencies of stutterers may vary as a function of defense preference is discussed in relation to: (1) definitions of stuttering phenomena and the disorder; (2) the developmental nature of stuttering as a problem and the role of learning; (3) different syndromes of stuttering; and (4) the contributions of etiologic versus pathogenic factors to the origins of the disorder.