Validating the Self-Report of Defense Styles

The Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report questionnaire and it revealed four factors upon factor analysis in a previous study. Each factor was presumed to be a group of defense mechanisms that we called a defense style due to substantial but limited validity. Further validation of the DSQ was tested in this second study by correlating 156 subjects' responses to the questionnaire with their scores on the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS), in which judges rated defense mechanisms from a videotaped clinical assessment interview. There were significant positive correlations between the use of the maladaptive defense style on the DSQ and ratings of immature defenses by the clinical judges (DMRS) as well as with low scores on the Health—Sickness Rating Scale. There was a significantly negative correlation between the maladaptive defense style and the clinical rating of mature defenses. There were significant correlations between four DSQ items measuring image-distorting defenses and DMRS rating of this group of defenses. Otherwise, the three least adaptive DSQ defense styles significantly correlated with the DMRS immature defenses; or when grouped empirically, the action defenses. The self-sacrificing defense style also correlated with the DMRS disavowal defenses. A 6-month follow-up that involved 39 subjects filling out the DSQ again showed stability of defense styles over time, with a shift toward greater maturity.