Defense Mechanism Test and Electrodermal Activity

Abstract

Electrodermal activity was registered during examination with the Defense Mechanism Test of 21 patients diagnosed with anxiety disorder, affective disorder, or schizophrenic disorder. The test can be interpreted as a model situation of how a person defends himself against a threat to avoid anxiety. We used Andersson's modified version of the test and tested the hypothesis that electrodermal activity should increase when there were responses categorised as Anxiety and decrease when there were responses categorised as defences or when the threat was correctly identified. We found significant increase in all electrodermal variables in connection with responses categorised as Anxiety. After exposures with responses categorised as Isolation, the maximal skin conductance level and the magnitude of late nonspecific responses were significantly decreased. After exposures when the threat was identified and thus no longer subliminal, the electrodermal activity was significantly decreased. All these findings support our hypothesis. After exposures with significantly decreased. All these findings support our hypothesis. After exposures with responses categorised as Denial all electrodermal variables were significantly increased. Similarly in responses categorised as Repression, Introaggression, and Disavowal or denial of hero's sex the frequency of late nonspecific responses were significantly increased. The increased electrodermal activity could be due to insufficient defence strategies as categorised in the Defense Mechanism Test.

Panic disorder and the Defence Mechanism Test

“…Denial, which was rather common, was also combined with phobic symptoms and phobic avoidance. This is in accordance with a previous study, where exposures with these defence categories were accompanied with higher maximum skin conductance as in exposures with signs of anxiety (34).…”

“…These defence categories were not accompanied with any change in maximum skin conductance (34). Because these relationships were isolated and many statistical tests were calculated, it could not be excluded that these results occurred by chance.…”

“…The defence categories coded in DMTm were: Repression with hero, Repression with the peripheral person, Denial, Projected introaggression , Introaggression , Isolation, Polymorphous identi cation, Disavowal or denial of the threat relation, Disavowal or denial of hero's sex, Disavowal or denial of the identity of the peripheral person, and Disappearance of the threat (33,34).…”

“…In the test, the subject is exposed to two different pictures each showing a younger central person, the hero and an older peripheral person in the background who poses a threat to the hero. Defences are categorized in terms of the responses of the subject to the pictures (33,34). The peripheral person is of the same sex as the tested subject in both series in the DMT.…”

Early visual information processing and the Defence Mechanism Test in schizophrenia

“…The modified version of the DMT (DMTm) by Anderson (26,27,(31)(32)(33) was used, the main difference to the DMT being that the peripheral person in the DMTm is always a woman in the first series and a man in the second. In the original DMT, the peripheral person in both series is of the same sex as the tested person.…”