Defense Mechanisms and Respiratory Parameters

Uwe Hentschel, Thomas Van Praag, Manfred Kießling

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DOI: 10.4236/psych.2011.24052                

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to look the relation of stress, respiration and gender to defense mechanisms. A questionnaire was used to measure Turning against Object, Projection and Reversal and showed a negative rela- tion to stress, measured by a high-speed task at the PC, representing a cognitive task. Defense mechanisms showed also a negative relationship to the respiratory variables, Amplitude per minute and Time in. Steepness and Amplitude per minute showed a greater value for women. Pause at the end of inhalation, Time in and Fre- quency gave a greater value for men, who also showed more stress. Thus defense mechanisms can obviously help to prevent cognitive stress, with respiration they showed mixed results. Future research should especially pay more attention to the existing gender differences in respiration as well as in defense mechanisms.

Keywords

Defense Mechanisms, Respiratory Variables, Gender Differences, Optimal Scaling

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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