DSQ-40
Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40)
The DSQ-40 is a brief self-report questionnaire that explores the conscious derivatives of 20 defense mechanisms and groups them into three defensive styles: mature, neurotic, and immature. It is mainly used in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and research to identify habitual ways of managing internal conflict, anxiety, and stress, and to monitor certain changes in psychotherapy. Its administration is simple and quick, which makes it a useful tool to complement the clinical interview, particularly when exploring personality functioning. It is not a diagnostic tool on its own, and its subscores should be interpreted with caution, taking into account the clinical context and the overall level of psychological distress.
- Number of questions
- 40 questions
- Estimated duration
- 10 minutes
- Language
- English
- Original name
- Defense Style Questionnaire
- Target audience
- Adults and adolescents
- Authors
- Gavin Andrews, Manjit Singh, Michael Bond (1993)
- Category
- General
Scoring & interpretation
Each item is rated on a scale from 1 to 9 according to the degree of agreement with the statement. Each defense mechanism corresponds to 2 items, which are averaged to obtain 20 specific scores. The defensive style scores are then obtained by averaging the mechanisms belonging to the mature, neurotic, and immature styles. The higher the score, the greater the use of the mechanism or style concerned. There is no universally accepted diagnostic cutoff, so interpretation relies mainly on the relative profile of the scores and their integration into the clinical assessment.
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