The Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is the most widely used and studied survey to test a person's defense mechanism. It, of course, needs to be answered honestly in order to give an accurate reading. The Defense Style Questionnaire was developed by the authors of the following paper, where it was first mentioned: "The Defense Style Questionnaire." Andrews, Gavin; Singh, Michelle; Bond, Michael. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol 181(4), Apr 1993, 246-256.
The DSQ provides scores on 3 scales:
- Mature Defenses
- Neurotic Defenses
- Immature Defenses
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Calvin, of the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes", frequently called "the last great comic strip", describes what it is like to live in Denial, a psychological defense mechanism classified as pathological |
I have provided below a link to an abbreviated version of the DSQ available online. Your scores will appear next to a "mean" based on a large sample of college students that have taken the test.
When looking at your results pay attention to:
- How each of your scores compare to each of the means
- How the sum of your scores compare to the sum of the three means
- Do you have more defenses or less defenses than what is typical?
Analyzing the scores in this way will provide you with a fairly accurate portrayal of whether you are a more defensive than average or rather a less defensive person. It will also show you what the character of your ego is, as you may be well-adjusted, neurotic, or just immature.
To learn what defenses the "mature", "neurotic", and "immature" classifications include, please refer to Vaillant´s categorization of defense mechanisms. Note: The DSQ does not measure pathological defenses as a separate category. It includes pathological defenses in the immature category.
Having read the above, you are ready ---
Know yourself.
Having read the above, you are ready ---
Take the Defense Style Questionnaire!
Know yourself.
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Other psychological personality tests you may enjoy:
Attachment Style Test (New article, with complete theory, dynamics, and free copies of the DSM V and ICD-10!)
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test
The Enneagram Personality Test
Lüscher Color Test (Expanded background information)
The MMPI-2 Personality Inventory
Why are you using a shortened version? Does that not remove it from the preexisting research and detach it from whatever validity the test initially had?
ReplyDeleteLink needs to be updated to remove the "www" for example: https://web.pdx.edu/~dcoleman/dsq.html
ReplyDeletewill work but your link: www.web.pdx.edu/~dcoleman/dsq.html does not.
Also, thank you so much for putting together this site. It is very enlightening and helpful!
ReplyDelete