The Study of Defense Mechanisms Pattern Regarding Creative Thinking Level

In this study, in order to develop a more thorough understanding of personality characteristics of creative people, the quantity and quality of defence mechanisms and their defensive style was studied. 258 female Master’s and PhD students in Tarbiat Modares University were selected via convenience sampling, and completed Abedi Creative Thinking Questionnaire. Thereafter, two groups of 30 subjects with the highest and lowest scores in the questionnaire were chosen as experimental groups to be compared. Defensive Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) was used to analyze defensive styles and mechanisms. Finally, the data were analyzed using t-test for the independent groups. The results indicated that individuals with high or lower creative thinking showed no difference regarding the general use of defence mechanisms. Also, the findings showed that individuals with more creative thought and those with less creative thought make use of more mature defence style and less mature defence mechanisms respectively. In general the main defence characteristics of individuals with more creative thought in comparison with individuals with less creative thought is their frequent use of more mature defence mechanisms such as sublimation, humour and anticipation, and immature mechanisms such as rationalisation, dissociation and denial; however, the main defence characteristics of individuals with less creative thought was the frequent use of immature defence mechanisms such as projection, acting out, splitting, passive aggressive behaviour, fantasy, displacement and somatisation. The findings of the present study once again emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between two domains of creativity. In addition, in line with findings of previous studies, the results indicate that creative individuals are distinguished from individuals with less creativity due to their creative defensive styles.