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Defense mechanisms and morality: A link between isolation and moralization.

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Author

Summary, in English

The relationship between morality and perceptual defense mechanisms was studied. Three new scales were constructed to measure different aspects of morality: moralism (the tendency to evaluate everything in terms of right and wrong), conscience (strength of feelings of right and wrong) and reparation (inclination to repair the damage one has caused). Perceptual defense mechanisms were measured with Kragh’s Defense Mechanism Test (DMT). Three hypotheses about relationships between morality and defense mechanisms, derived from psychoanalytical literature, were tested on 54 male University students. Results show positive correlations between the defense mechanism isolation of affect and moralism, and between identification with the aggressor and reparation. Total amount of perceptual defense correlated positively with moralism. It is argued that the psychological study of morality should take unconscious processes into consideration.

Publishing year

2000

Language

English

Pages

55-61

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

Volume

41

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • morality

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1467-9450