A Construct Validation Study of the DMRS-SR-30 Defensive Categories Utilizing the Interpersonal Circumplex

Defenses or unconscious strategies used to manage anxiety and preserve self-concept are useful for understanding personality functioning and the quality of interpersonal relationships. Despite defenses' clinical and interpersonal relevance, psychometrically sound self-report measures of defenses are limited. The Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales-Self-Report-30 (DMRS-SR-30), a newly developed self-report measure, provides scores for overall defensive functioning and mature, neurotic, and immature defenses. Given defenses' interpersonal nature, the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) can be used to examine the DMRS-SR-30's construct validity. The current study uses self-report data from 361 participants recruited from Amazon's MTurk to examine the interpersonal characteristics of overall defensive functioning and defensive categories. Results from structural summary method analyses align with theoretical expectations for each category, supporting the use of the measure. The mature defensive category was associated with submissive problems, submissive warm efficacies, and sensitivity to antagonism and had the lowest levels of interpersonal distress and misanthropy and the highest levels of interpersonal efficacy. The neurotic defensive category was associated with submissive problems, cold efficacies, and the second highest level of interpersonal distress. The immature category was associated with dominant problems, dominant cold efficacies, and sensitivity to dependence and had the highest levels of interpersonal distress and misanthropy.