Prediction of Defense Mechanism Styles Based on Executive Functions

Authors
zoha borhani dizaji
seyed abolghasem mehrinejad
mehrangiz peyvastegar
alzahra university
Abstract
Combining psychoanalysis and neurology feels peculiar at first. The combination that tries to bind concepts of psychoanalysis with neuroscience in order to provide an integrates knowledge for better understanding of human mind. However, interaction between psychoanalysis and neuroscience has come to attention during past three decades. Purpose of this study is to investigate and find correlation between three styles of defense mechanism, Mature, immature and neurotic defense mechanism with executive functions within universities students of Tehran. For this matter a study performs on a sample of 140 students (including 76 women and 64 men) by available sampling. The instruments of this research were The Defense Styles Questionnaire (DSQ40) and four computer base test for executive functions including Continues Performance Test (CPT), Strops, 1-back, Go-No Go. The data was analyzed by Pearson correlation and multiple regression method. This study demonstrated significant relation between styles of defense mechanism and executive functions and also forms a model to estimate executive function shares in neurotic and growth defense mechanisms. As a result, the findings suggest that one’s performance on executive functions can affect their style of defense mechanism.
Keywords
Defense mechanism
executive function
Neuropsychoanalysis
Attention
inhibition
working memory
Bargh, J., and Cartrand, T., (1999). The unbearable automaticity of bei‌ng. Am. Psychol. 54, 462-479
Resiliency: Conceptual and empirical connections and separateness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(2), 349-361.
Bredemeier, K., Warren, S. L., Berenbaum, H., Miller, G. A., & Heller, W. (2016). Executive function deficits associated with current and past major depressive symptoms. Journal of Affective Disorders, 204(Supplement C), 226-233.
Campbell, A. M., Davalos, D. B., McCabe, D. P., Troup, L. J. (2011). Executive functions and extraversion, Personality and Individual Differences, 51(6), 720-725,
Carhart-Harris, R. L. and Friston, K. J. (2010). The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain, 133, 1265–1283.
Chow, T. W. (2000). Personality in frontal lobe disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 2(5), 446–451.
Cramer. P, Procerelli. J.H, (2016), Defense Mechanism. Encyclopedia of mental health.
DeYoung, C. G., Shamosh, N. A., Green, A. E., Braver, T. S., & Gray, J. R. (2009). Intellect as distinct from Openness: Differences revealed by fMRI of working memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 883–892.
Feinberg, T. (2010). Neuropathologies of the self: Clinical and anatomical features (Vol. 20).
Feinberg, T. E., and Shapiro, R. M. (1989). Misidentification-reduplication and the right hemisphere. Neuropsychiatr. Neuropsychol. Behav. Neurol. 2, 39–48.
Fleminger, S., and Burns, A. (1993). The delusional misidentification syndromes in patients with and without evidence of organic
cerebral disorder: a structured review of case reports. Biol. Psychiatry 33, 22–32.
Fonagy, P. (2003). Psychoanalysis today. World Psychiatry, 2(2), 73–80.
Freud, S., (1920). Au-delà du principe de plaisir. In: Essais de Psychanalyse, 1968.
Fujii, Y., Kitagawa, N., Shimizu, Y., Mitsui, N., Toyomaki, A., Hashimoto, N., Kusumi, I. (2013). Severity of generalized social anxiety disorder correlates with low executive functioning, Vol. 543.
Fuster, J. M., (1997). The prefrontal cortex: Anatomy, Physiology, and Neurology of the frontal lobe. Ed 3. New York: Lippincott-Raven.
Gil-Fenoy, M. J., García-García, J., Carmona-Samper, E., & Ortega-Campos, E. (2017). Antisocial Behavior and Executive Functions in Young Offenders. Revista de Psicodidáctica (English Ed.).
Gunn, R. L., Gerst, K. R., Lake, A. J., & Finn, P. R. (2018). The effects of working memory load and attention refocusing on delay discounting rates in alcohol use disorder with comorbid antisocial personality disorder. Alcohol, 66(Supplement C), 9-14.
Gulpers, B., Lugtenburg, A., Zuidersma, M., Verhey, F. R. J., & Oude Voshaar, R. (2018). Anxiety disorders and figural fluency: A measure of executive function, Vol. 234.
Gvirts, H. Z., Braw, Y., Harari, H., Lozin, M., Bloch, Y., Fefer, K., & Levkovitz, Y. (2015). Executive dysfunction in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. European Psychiatry, 30(8), 959-964.
Hagenhoff, M., Franzen, N., Koppe, G., Baer, N., Scheibel, N., Sammer, G., Lis, S. (2013). Executive functions in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 210(1), 224-231.
Hobson, J. A. (2009). REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of proto consciousness. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 10(11), 803–813.
Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R., Miura, T. K. & Colflesh, G. J. (2007). Working memory, Attention control, and the N-back task: a question of construct validity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 33(3), 615-622.
Loftiz, W Christopher. (2004). an ecological validity study of executive function measures in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Dissertation for PhD. university of Florida.
Mancia, M. (2004). The dream between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Archives Italiennes de Biologie, 142(4), 525–531.
Messinis L, Kosmidis MH, Tsakona I, Georgiou V, Aretouli E, Papathanasopoulos P. Ruff 2 and 7 Selective Attention Test: Normative data, discriminant validity and test–retest reliability in Greek adults. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2007; 22(6):773-85.
Miyake, A., Friedman, N., Emerson, M., Witzki, A., & Howerter, A. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive Functions and their contributions to complex ‘frontal lobe’ tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49-100.
Nejati, V., Salehinejad, M. A., Shahidi, N., & Abedin, A. (2017). Psychological intervention combined with direct electrical brain stimulation (PIN-CODES) for treating major depression: A pre-test, post-test, follow-up pilot study. Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research, 25, 15-23.
Northoff, G. (2007). Psychopathology and pathophysiology of the self in depression—neuropsychiatric hypothesis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 104(1–3), 1–14.
Schoemaker, K., Mulder, H., Dekovic, M., & Matthys, W. (2013). Executive functions in preschool children with externalizing behavior problems.
A meta-analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41(3), 457-471. doi: 10.1007/s10802-012-9684-x.
Snyder, H., Kaiser, R., Warren, S., & Heller, W. (2015). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Is Associated With Broad Impairments in Executive Function: A Meta-Analysis (Vol. 3).
Solms, M., and Friston, K., (2018). How and why consciousness arises: some consideration from physics and physiology. J. Conscious. Stud. 25, 202-238.
Solms, M., & Turnbull, O. (2014). What Is Neuropsychoanalysis? (Vol. 13).
Solms, L.M., (2018). The Neurobiological Underpinnings of psychoanalytic theory and therapy, frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, vol.12, article 294.
Tasman, A. (2015). Psychoanalysis: Current Status A2 - Wright, James D International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition) (pp. 336-343). Oxford: Elsevier.
Vaillant, G. E. (1992). Ego Mechanisms of Defense: A Guide for Clinicians and Researchers. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Vaillant, G. E. (1993). The Wisdom of the Ego. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Van Dijk, F. E., Mostert, J., Glennon, J., Onnink, M., Dammers, J., Vasquez, A. A.Buitelaar, J. K. (2017). Five factor model personality traits relate
to adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder but not to their distinct neurocognitive profiles. Psychiatry Research, 258(Supplement C), 255-261.
Williams, P.G., Suchy, Y., Kraybill, M.L., 2010. Five-Factor Model personality traits and Executive functioning among older adults. J. Res. Personal. 44, 485–491.