Assessing Ego Defense Mechanisms by Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Psychopathological Correlates of the Greek Version of the Plutchik's Life Style Index

Abstract

The Life Style Index (LSI; Plutchik, Kellerman, & Conte, 1979 ) was designed to assess defense mechanisms, assuming that their use is related to specific affective states and diagnostic concepts. We aimed to assess the psychometric properties of its Greek version and its relation to psychopathological symptoms. The LSI was back-translated into Greek and was administered to 1,261 participants. Six factors were identified, 5 of them largely corresponding to the original version's defenses (compensation, denial, projection, reaction formation, and repression). The sixth factor, named regressive emotionality, included mainly the original scale's regression and displacement factors. Test-retest reliabilities, internal consistencies, and construct validity were quite satisfactory. Most defenses were able to discriminate psychiatric patients from healthy participants and were associated with specific psychopathological symptoms in a theoretically expected mode, further supporting the validity of the Greek version. Our findings suggest that the LSI, based on both psychoevolutionary and psychoanalytic theory, can provide a solid ground for assessing ego defense mechanisms.

Psychiatric manifestations, personality traits and health‐related quality of life in cancer of unknown primary site

“…A high agreement rate was found between individual defense mechanisms assessed by the LSI and clinical ratings of the relevant defenses [28]. The study of the psychometric properties of its Greek version supports its validity for use within the Greek population, with Cronbach's alphas being 0.60-0.78 and retest reliability coefficients 0.69-0.83 for the individual defenses studied [27].…”

Personality variables as predictors of early non-metastatic colorectal cancer patients’ psychological distress and health-related quality of life: A one-year prospective study

“…Since psychological distress could be both a predictor and outcome of HRQOL but it is also associated with the psychosocial variables [33,44,45], to assess predictors of HRQOL three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. The dependent variables were the decrease in the Physical, Mental and Social Relations HRQOL over the study period.…”

“…A high agreement rate was found between individual defense mechanisms as assessed by the LSI and clinical ratings of the relevant defenses [32]. LSI was translated into Greek and recent investigation of its psychometric properties by our research team supports its validity for use within the Greek population [33]. Cronbach's alphas obtained from the present sample considered acceptable for measuring defenses in cancer patients (αN0.60) [21,23], and were as follows: denial, 0.69; regression, 0.69; repression, 0.81; compensation, 0.63; projection, 0.79; displacement, 0.70; intellectualization, 0.68 and reaction formation, 0.71.…”

Anxiety, depression and defense mechanisms associated with treatment decisional preferences and quality of life in non‐metastatic breast cancer: a 1‐year prospective study

“…Defenses were assessed with the standardized Greek version of the Plutchik's 97‐item self‐report questionnaire Life Style Index (LSI) , which assesses eight defenses: compensation , denial , displacement , intellectualization , projection , reaction formation , regression and repression . A high agreement rate was found between individual defense mechanisms assessed by the LSI and clinical ratings of the relevant defenses .…”