Self-Destructive Behaviors in People with Mood and Personality Disorders: Its Role and Implications for Future Functioning in the Light of Repression-Sensitization Variable

Abstract

Personality and mood disorders influence everyday functioning throughout interference with situations and impediment of adaptive ways of coping with stress. They cause many problems relating to situations and people, and in many cases stay responsible for self-destructive behaviors. Self-injurious behaviors are related to self-esteem, social approval, and anxiety level. In the presented study the analysis of relations between data on self-destruction, self-esteem, social desirability, and anxiety level was conducted. A group of 100 respondents, including 79 women, and 21 men age 18-60 (M=31.91; SD=8.22) filled in set of questionnaires including Self-Destruction Questionnaire, Self-Esteem Scale, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Social Desirability Questionnaire. In the group of respondents there were 43 persons without clinical diagnosis, 22 people with mood disorders, and 35 respondents with personality disorders diagnosed by psychiatrists based on ICD-10 diagnostic criteria. A positive correlation between self-destructive behaviors and anxiety, and negative relationship with self-esteem, and social desirability were discovered. Persons diagnosed with personality disorders were more prone to high anxiety level and sensitization of emotional stimuli than were the people without such diagnosis. People without clinical diagnosis recruited quite frequently from repressors group.