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Abstract
Relying upon psychoanalytic theory, it was hypothesized that defensive style would predict future deliquency after exposure to a threatening intervention. 300 high school students were characterized as high or low on each of the five clusters (i.e., Turning Against Object, Projection, Principalization, Turning Against Self, and Reversal) of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI). After exposure to a film ("Scared Straight") that showed prisoners confronting juvenile deliquents with the consequences of crime, using threats of violence, experimental subjects were asked to indicate the likelihood of their engaging in future delinquent acts. Control subjects were exposed to a more neutral film ("Delinquency: Prevention and Treatment"). All subjects also reported their emotional responses to the film they viewed, using the Differential Emotions Scale (DES).
Correlations among the DMI scales in this sample of subjects are consistent with other cited studies. Also, the various defense mechanisms tend to relate to level of past deliquency in the expected direction, with externalizers much more likely to act out than internalizers. Males and females were found to be significantly different on the DMI scales. Although females were less affected by the film than males, both male and female subjects predicted less future delinquency in the experimental film condition relative to the more neutral control film. However, the primary hypothesis, that defensive style would interact with the film condition to account for level of future delinquency, could not be supported.
In a post-hoc analysis, partial correlations between DMI scales and future delinquency, controlling for past delinquency, were carried out. These data suggest that, for males, defensive style may be related to delinquency after exposure to the experimental film in a predictable pattern. For females, the pattern was much less interpretable.
Methodological refinements were suggested for future research, so that a more sensitive design could be employed. Such a design, using a larger number of subjects in each cell, might then be able to support hypotheses about an interaction between defensive style and threatening interventions in influencing delinquency.
