The Relationship between Depression with Cognitive Fusion and Defense Mechanisms

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the world, so it is important to know it as well as possible to design interventions to reduce it in society. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between depression with cognitive fusion and defense mechanisms. This research is descriptive-correlation type. The research population was the students of Kashan University in the academic year of 2023-2024, and 350 of them were selected by convenience sampling method. Research tools included Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) and Defense Mechanisms Questionnaire-40 (DSQ-40). Data analysis was done using SPSS-26 software and Pearson correlation coefficient. The obtained findings showed that depression is positively correlated with cognitive fusion and immature and neurotic defense mechanisms (P < 0.01). But the relationship between depression and mature defense mechanisms such as humor and sublimation was negative and significant (P < 0.01). These findings show that depression is related to unhealthy thought processes such as cognitive fusion and immature and neurotic defense mechanisms, and therefore attention should be paid to this issue in the field of treatment.