Personality Assessment Inventory profiles of university students with eating disorders.

Background: Eating disorders are complex disorders that involve medical and psychological symptoms. Understanding the psychological factors associated with different eating disorders is important for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

Methods: This study sought to determine on which of the 22 Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) scales patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) differed, and whether the PAI can be used to classify eating disorder subtypes.

The role of defense mechanisms in borderline and antisocial personalities.

We examined whether borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder (APD) could be differentiated based on defense mechanisms as measured by observer (Defense-Q; MacGregor, Olson, Presniak, & Davidson, 2008) and self-report (Defense Style Questionnaire; Andrews, Singh, & Bond, 1993) measures. We conducted 2 studies whereby nonclinical participants were divided into borderline and antisocial groups based on scores from the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991). Multivariate analysis of variance results revealed significant overall group differences in defense use.

Differentiation of depression and anxiety groups using defense mechanisms.

We examined whether participants in depressed and anxious groups could be classified correctly using observer and self-report measures of defense mechanisms. A sample of 1182 university students completed the Personality Assessment Inventory and those scoring in the clinical range on either depression or anxiety indices were selected for participation. In total, 25 participants met criteria for the depressed group and 94 met criteria for the anxious group.

Adaptive defense use and resting blood pressure in a population-based sample.

Objectives: There is an accumulating body of research related to the psychosomatic study of blood pressure. One variable that has received attention is defense use. We examined the relation between defense use and blood pressure in men and women of different ages.