A STUDY OF THE DEFENSE MECHANISM OF INTELLECTUALIZATION.
Item
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Title
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A STUDY OF THE DEFENSE MECHANISM OF INTELLECTUALIZATION.
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Identifier
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AAI8302522
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identifier
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8302522
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Creator
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KESTENBAUM, GERALD I.
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Contributor
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I. H. Paul
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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The defense mechanism of intellectualization has been imprecisely and inconsistently defined in the past, and an analysis of the literature reveals several different theoretical models for intellectualization. It was concluded that intellectualization could best be defined as the use of increased cognitive activity for its inherent affect-inhibiting potential, and not as an avoidance technique. It was therefore hypothesized that an increase in cognitive functioning would result in a decrease of affective arousal even when there is no shift of attention away from the stimulus.;The experimental method utilized by Lazarus and his collaborators was adapted to test this hypothesis. 48 male undergraduate subjects were divided into intellectualization and control groups. Both groups were shown a stress-inducing film, although with varying instructions. Intellectualization group subjects were instructed to think about and try to understand the film; control group subjects were instructed to simply watch the film. Three self-report stress measures were obtained before and after the film. Heart rate and skin conductance measures were also obtained preceding and during the film for each subject. It was hypothesized that intellectualization group subjects would show a lower stress arousal than control group subjects.;The skin conductance results provided support for the hypotheses although the differences between the two groups became significant only following the elimination of extreme and negative GSR subjects. The heart rate data and the results of the self-report measures were inconclusive. Although there was evidence that the film instruction was effective for only some of the subjects, no interaction effect between personality style and instruction effectiveness was found.;The findings suggest the viability of the hypothesized model for intellectualization, and the need for developing clearer and more systematized definitions for all the defense mechanisms was highlighted. Methodological questions were raised regarding the use of the baseline period to represent stress-free level of arousal, and the phenomenon of stress-anticipation was discussed in this context. The importance of subject age as a factor in stress-arousal experiments also emerged from the findings of this study.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
