Premium
Defenses, Personality Structure, and Development: Integrating Psychodynamic Theory Into a Typological Approach to Personality
Author(s) -
Weinberger Daniel A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6494.00042
Subject(s) - psychology , psychodynamics , personality , personality development , perspective (graphical) , typology , personality assessment inventory , distress , big five personality traits and culture , big five personality traits , social psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , history
Psychodynamic theory does not conceptualize motivated unconscious defenses primarily in terms of individual traits. Rather, a person's mechanisms of defense are understood in terms of his or her personality structure and level of psychological development. This paper outlines the way in which this perspective has been integrated into a configural approach to personality assessment. The six‐group typology based on the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI) identifies higher‐order personality organization through the intersection of self‐reported high/low distress and high/moderate/low self‐restraint. The framework incorporates a developmental perspective by assessing affect regulation in conjunction with the internalization of self‐regulatory controls. The primary defenses of prototypic members of each of the six groups are highlighted, and hypothesized links to personality traits, stages of ego development, attachment styles, and proneness to specific personality disorders are discussed.