Defense Mechanisms and Thinking Styles

Abstract

The principal objective of this research was to examine the value of thinking styles and that of defense mechanisms by identifying the predictive power of thinking styles for defense mechanisms, controlling for key demographics and social desirability. The preliminary objective was to construct and test an alternative form of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI-AF). Three hundred and thirty-eight university students from mainland China responded to the DMI-AF, the Thinking Styles Inventory—Revised II, and the Paulhus Deception Scales. Results showed that the psychometric properties of the 4-vignette Likert-scaled DMI-AF were similar to those previously obtained by using the original 10-vignette DMI in both forced-choice and Likert-scaled formats. When age, gender, academic discipline, and social desirability were taken into account, thinking styles significantly predicted defense mechanisms—largely in the expected directions. Implications of the findings are discussed for university students and academics.