Research Findings

Abstract

In Chapter 13, which discussed the reliability and validity of the DMM, some aspects of the research studies in which the DMM has been used were presented. In this chapter, the research studies are presented systematically, providing the reader with empirical findings from my own work and that of others who have used this approach to study defense mechanisms. Four of these studies have investigated defenses in children; a fifth compared adolescent’s defenses with those of their parents. Two more studies look at defenses in college students, and two other investigations are concerned with the defense mechanisms of psychiatric patients. Finally, a study comparing scores obtained from the DMM with those from the DMI is discussed. Some of these studies were published previously in psychological journals, where full details of the investigation are provided. For the unpublished studies, the statistical data are given here.