An empirical look at the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT): Reliability and construct validity

Although the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) has been in use for almost half a century, there are still quite contradictory views about whether it is a reliable instrument, and if so, what it really measures. Thus, based on data from 39 female students, we first examined DMT inter‐coder reliability by...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scandinavian journal of psychology Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 285 - 296
Main Authors: EKEHAMMAR, BO, ZUBER, IRENA, KONSTENIUS, MARJA-LIISA
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing, Ltd 01.07.2005
Subjects:
Adult
construct validity
Defense Mechanisms
DMT
Empirical Research
Female
Humans
Male
Projective Techniques
Reproducibility of Results
Self Concept
ISSN:0036-5564, 1467-9450
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) has been in use for almost half a century, there are still quite contradictory views about whether it is a reliable instrument, and if so, what it really measures. Thus, based on data from 39 female students, we first examined DMT inter‐coder reliability by analyzing the agreement among trained judges in their coding of the same DMT protocols. Second, we constructed a “parallel” photographic picture that retained all structural characteristic of the original and analyzed DMT parallel‐test reliability. Third, we examined the construct validity of the DMT by (a) employing three self‐report defense‐mechanism inventories and analyzing the intercorrelations between DMT defense scores and corresponding defenses in these instruments, (b) studying the relationships between DMT responses and scores on trait and state anxiety, and (c) relating DMT‐defense scores to measures of self‐esteem. The main results showed that the DMT can be coded with high reliability by trained coders, that the parallel‐test reliability is unsatisfactory compared to traditional psychometric standards, that there is a certain generalizability in the number of perceptual distortions that people display from one picture to another, and that the construct validations provided meager empirical evidence for the conclusion that the DMT measures what it purports to measure, that is, psychological defense mechanisms.
Bibliography:istex:C7E4F1E7AAD0D2448C6431D518AB15F3960C9BF2
ArticleID:SJOP458
ark:/67375/WNG-42BGNF4B-Q
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Undefined-3
ISSN:0036-5564
1467-9450
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00458.x