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Although the concept of the defense mechanism was rejected from academic psychology for a number of years, recent empirical studies show renewed interest in defenses. Cognitive psychologists have confirmed the existence of unconscious psychological processes, a requisite for defenses. Developmental, personality, and social psychologists have all found evidence for defense mechanisms that explicate psychological functioning. The relevance of this new information for clinical practice is discussed.

Defense mechanisms and coping strategies are discussed as two different types of adaptational processes. They may be clearly differentiated on the basis of the psychological processes involved, but not on the basis of their relation to outcome measures. Criteria that critically differentiate between defense and coping processes include the conscious/unconscious status and the intentional/nonintentional nature of the processes. Criteria based on the dispositional or situational status of the process, and on the conceptualization of the processes as hierarchical, are found to be more a matter of emphasis than of critical difference. A criterion that attempts to differentiate between defense and coping processes on the basis of their relation to psychological or physical health is found to be without support once the bias in self-report outcome measures is recognized.

It is proposed that defense mechanisms may be charactenzed as forming a hierarchy, from least to most complex, and that the lowest level defenses emerge early m life, while the more complex defenses emerge later m development Three defenses-Denial, Projection and Identification-were chosen to test this assumption A method for assessing the use of these defenses in Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories was developed and validated m a study of four age groups preschool, elementary school, early adolescent, and late adolescent The results ofthe study were consistent with the prediction Denial was used most frequently by preschool children, and decreased in use thereafter Identification was used minimally by preschool children but increased steadily through adolescence The use of Projection was most frequent m the two middle age groups Some evidence for sex differences, based on the lnternal/extemal onentation ofthe defense, also was found Appreciation is expressed to

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It was hypothesized that experimentally induced anger would result in an increased use of defense mechanisms in college students. As predicted from the theory of defense mechanism development, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories of angered students showed a higher level of use of projection and identification, and the use of these defenses was significantly correlated with the presence of aggressive content in the stories. The results were consistent with previous studies in showing that the predominant defenses of late adolescents are projection and identification, and that men use more projection than women.

The effects of moderate stress on the use of defense mechanisms by 64 second-and sixth-graders were determined The use of denial, projecnon, and identification was assessed from stones told to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pnor to, and subsequent to, an expenmentally controlled experience of success or failure Subjects who expenenced failure were more likely to use the lower level defenses of denial and projection, while the expenence of success was followed by greater use of identification The results also were consistent with previous studies m demonstrating age and sex differences in the use of defense mechanisms As IS true for the development of other ego functions, the occurrence of defense mechanisms as a normal part of childhood can be ordered along a developmental continuum, based on the complexity of the cognitive operations involved in the functioning of the defense (Cramer, 1983(Cramer, , 1987 Denial functions by withdrawing attention from a noxious stimulus, thereby denying its existence Projection requires the ability to differentiate between intemal and extemal stimuli, as well as the developHwnt of intemal standards by which certain thoughts and feelings are judged unacceptable Identification, the most mature of these three defenses, requires the capacity to differentiate self from other, to differentiate among many "others," and to form endunng intemal mental representations of those others 'Requests for repnnts should be directed to Phebe Cramer,

This article reviews research on defense mechanisms carried out over the past 40 years with children, adolescents, adults, and psychiatric patients. Both experimental and observational studies are included.