An evaluation of the Defence Mechanism Test

Abstract

A number of applied studies have shown that Kragh's Defence Mechanism Test (DMT) is able to predict success in stressful occupations in accord with Freudian theory. This test has never been related to other common personality measures, and only one study has determined whether subliminal threat is a necessary condition for producing the perceptual distortions thought to correspond to defences. Two experiments are reported. One shows that subliminal threat is a necessary element of the DMT. The second shows that, although the correlations between the DMT scales and established personality variables are generally small, they are as hypothesized from Freudian theory. The lack of correspondence between the repression scale of the DMT and a measure of perceptual defence does however cast doubt on the validity of this scale of the test.

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