Identity Processing Style and Defense Mechanisms

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Berzonsky ◽  
Andrew Kinney

Identity Processing Style and Defense Mechanisms To investigate relationships between identity processing styles and patterns of defense mechanisms, 213 participants (Mean age = 23.01 years) completed measures of defense-mechanism clusters and styles of negotiating (or managing to avoid) identity conflicts and threats (64% of the participants were female). A self-exploratory, informational identity style was associated with defense mechanisms that control anxiety and threats via internal cognitive maneuvers. In contrast, a diffuse-avoidant identity style was found to be related to maladaptive defensive maneuvers including turning against others and turning aggression inward against oneself, which is related to depressive reactions. A foreclosing, normative identity style was associated with defenses that limit awareness of threatening ideas and information by denial, distortion, and negation. None of these relationships was qualified by age or gender. The findings are discussed in terms of a process model of identity development that emphasizes social-cognitive differences in how individuals construct, maintain, and reconstruct their self-identity.

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radosław Kaczan ◽  
Anna Izabela Brzezińska ◽  
Julita Wojciechowska

Abstract Departing from the model suggested by Luyckx, Schwarz, Berzonsky et al. (2008), the relationships between identity and educational context, social participation, and identity information processing style were investigated. Participants were 972 students from six vocational schools in Poznań. The students, within these six schools, attended Grades I-III of three types of vocational schools: basic vocational schools (n=271), technical upper secondary schools (n=448), and specialized upper secondary schools (n=253). Three questionnaires were used: The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS/PL), which measures five identity dimensions according to the concept of Luyckx, Schwarz, Berzonsky et al. (2008), Social Participation Questionnaire, developed by Brzezińska, Rękosiewicz and Hejmanowski (see Rękosiewicz, 2013b), enabling identification of the type of social participation, and the Polish adaptation of M. Berzonsky’s Identity Style Inventory 4 (ISI-4) authored by A. Senejko (2010), to examine identity styles. The results showed that the students from basic vocational schools and technical upper secondary schools were more often characterized by the normative identity style, whereas the students from specialized upper secondary schools manifested a greater tendency to engage themselves in exploration, both adaptive and ruminative.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Ibáñez-Alfonso ◽  
Rong Wei Sun ◽  
Gertina J. van Schalkwyk

The purpose of this project was to investigate the role of perceived parenting styles in the choice of identity processing and commitment among a group of Chinese youth. Examining the identity processing styles of 209 young people using the ISI-4 (Smits et al., 2008) and Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri, 1991), we hypothesised that parental styles and family socio-economic status would differentially impact the identity commitment of youth in Macao. The findings corroborated Berzonsky's (2004) model, with minor differences, showing a positive relation between authoritative parenting and informational processing and identity commitment. However, a negative relation between a normative processing style and identity commitment was found in the Chinese sample. Testing for the moderating effect of socioeconomic status showed that authoritative parenting combined with high SES levels lead to the informational processing style.


1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jari-Erik Nurmi ◽  
Michael D. Berzonsky ◽  
Kaisa Tammi ◽  
Andrew Kinney

The aim of this study was to investigate interrelationships among the identity negotiation styles that people use, the cognitive and behavioural strategies they deploy, and their sense of subjective well-being. To examine this, 198 American and 109 Finnish college students completed the Identity Style Inventory, the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire, Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale, and the revised Beck’s Depression Inventory. Results showed that people with an information-oriented identity style reported the highest level of self-esteem, those with a normative style had the most stable self-conceptions, and those with a diffuse/avoidant style displayed the highest level of depressive symptomatology. Moreover, dysfunctional cognitive and attributional strategies, such as expecting to fail and engaging in task-irrelevant behaviour, were associated with low self-esteem, unstable self-conceptions, and depressive symptomatology. Finally, the associations between identity processing styles and well-being were found to be mediated by the cognitive strategies that people deploy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Baugh;Baugh ◽  
Rebekah Richert

Identification is a construct rooted in psychoanalysis, where it was originally thought of as a defense mechanism (Freud, 1940/1949, p. 98). In more recent literature, identification (specifically, identifying with another person) is considered a process that requires both external (i.e., behavioral imitation) and internal (i.e., vicarious experience, imagination) mechanisms (Wollheim, 1974). Previous research has examined how humans come to know things about themselves over the lifespan, thus forming their own views about themselves; in other words, forming a self-identity. When examining the research on identity development, identifying with other people, and identifying with media characters, the development of own identity seems to parallel how humans relate to media characters at each stage of life. The purpose of this review is to: (1) examine identity as a construct; (2) examine identity development at each major stage of life; (3) bring attention to the problems media research tends to have when operationalizing the ways in which people can relate and react to media characters; and (4) examine how identifying and relating to media characters changes over the lifespan.


Author(s):  
Olya Khaleelee

This paper describes the use of the Defense Mechanism Test as an aid in helping to assess senior executives in four areas: for selection, development, career strategy, and crisis intervention. The origins of this test, developed to measure the defense mechanisms used to protect the individual from stress, are described. The paper shows how it was used to predict the capacity of trainee fighter pilots to withstand stress and its later application to other stressful occupations. Finally, some ideal types of the test are shown followed by four real test profiles, two of them with their associated histories.


Author(s):  
Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht ◽  
Zahra Ekbatäni

In The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes portrays the mysterious workings of the human mind as it distorts facts towards the end of a self-image that one can live with. The protagonist in the novel deploys certain psychological defense mechanisms in order to protect himself from feelings of anxiety, only to experience even more profound anxiety due to his excessive use of them. The significance of the present paper lies in its novel view of the book. So far, the critique on the novel has mainly been focused on the workings of time on memory; however, the present paper investigates how psychological defense mechanisms blur the protagonist’s perception of reality and distort his memories. This paper also attempts to attract scholarly interest in the study of psychological defense mechanisms in the study of The Sense of an Ending which has so far been to the best of our knowledge overlooked


1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-230
Author(s):  
Sam Minskoff ◽  
John M. Curtis

The present study examined specific defense mechanisms involved in perceptions of congenitally blind and sighted respondents. The Defense Mechanism Inventory was given 30 blind and 30 sighted subjects, randomly selected. One-way analyses of variance on specific defenses indicated nonsignificant differences between the groups who tended to show comparable patterns of ego defenses. Findings suggest any discrepancies in perception between such groups are not likely based on differences in the use of various defense mechanisms as measured by the Defense Mechanism Inventory.


Author(s):  
H. Michael Schwartz ◽  
Pooja Khatija ◽  
Diana Bilimoria

The question of how to efficiently, holistically, and successfully develop leaders has been the focus of scholars and practitioners for several decades. Embedding the process of leader development in organizational contexts allows participants to develop and apply leadership knowledge, skills, and identity awareness. Embeddedness facilitates the holistic integration of the interactive processes of leader development (which focuses on increasing the leadership capacity of an individual) and leadership development (which focuses on increasing the leadership capacity of an organization), which is referred to in this article as leader(ship) development (LD). Two sub-processes involved in LD (i.e., general and situational identity development and knowledge/skill/social capital development) and four mechanisms of embeddedness that facilitate holistic LD (i.e., leader identity integration, opportunities to learn and develop in the organization, organizational support and feedback, and helping relationships) will be described. A discussion on the ways by which management education pedagogy can integrate and facilitate embeddedness and provide guidance for future research will follow.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Li ◽  
Suzana Stojanovski ◽  
Pierre Maechler

In pancreaticβcells, mitochondrial metabolism translates glucose sensing into signals regulating insulin secretion. Chronic exposure ofβcells to excessive nutrients, namely, glucolipotoxicity, impairsβ-cell function. This is associated with elevated ROS production from overstimulated mitochondria. Mitochondria are not only the major source of cellular ROS, they are also the primary target of ROS attacks. The mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2, even though its uncoupling properties are debated, has been associated with protective functions against ROS toxicity. Hormesis, an adaptive response to cellular stresses, might contribute to the protection againstβ-cell death, possibly limiting the development of type 2 diabetes. Mitochondrial hormesis, or mitohormesis, is a defense mechanism observed in ROS-induced stress-responses by mitochondria. Inβcells, mitochondrial damages induced by sublethal exogenous H2O2can induce secondary repair and defense mechanisms. In this context, UCP2 is a marker of mitohormesis, being upregulated following stress conditions. When overexpressed in nonstressed naïve cells, UCP2 confers resistance to oxidative stress. Whether treatment with mitohormetic inducers is sufficient to restore or ameliorate secretory function ofβcells remains to be determined.


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