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Psychological defenses in females at‐risk for anorexia nervosa: An explanation for excessive stress found in anorexic patients
Author(s) -
Heilbrun Alfred B.,
Harris Ann
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(198603)5:3<503::aid-eat2260050308>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , psychology , anorexia , clinical psychology , psychological repression , stress (linguistics) , developmental psychology , eating disorders , medicine , biochemistry , gene expression , chemistry , linguistics , philosophy , gene
College females varying in anorexic and bulimic characteristics were examined for three evasive defense strategies found to be related in combination to pervasive stress symptoms in college students. Females showing the psychological characteristics of anorexics displayed all three. They tended to use repression as a defense, to be unaware of their repression, and to combine repression with narrow scanning of information. None of these effects was apparent for females sharing the psychological characteristics of bulimics. The use of a nonadaptive defensive style by the female at‐risk for anorexia represents a way of explaining excessive stress in anorexics despite their report of fewer stressful life events than bulimics. Qualitative differences in stress‐provoking concerns of anorexic and bulimic females also were suggested as contributing to this explanation.