The Splitting Index: construction of a scale measuring the defense mechanism of splitting

The Structure of Identity Dysfunction in Self-Report Measures

Identity dysfunction is considered core to psychopathology, contributing to emotional and interpersonal problems across psychiatric diagnoses. Despite its centrality in theories of personality and psychopathology, the empirical research on the structure of identity dysfunction is fragmented by a plethora of self-report measures assessing varied domains of identity dysfunction. This project examines conceptual domains of identity dysfunction in self-report assessments, with the goal of elucidating a clear structure of identity dysfunction to advance both theory and measurement. Toward this aim, we a) investigate the factor structure of identity dysfunction in existing self-report measures, using exploratory factor analysis and b) examine relationships between identity dysfunction and closely related constructs, using exploratory structural equation modeling. We assess responses from 632 young adults to 17 commonly used identity functioning self-report measures. In a series of exploratory factor analyses, we identified four content-domains of Identity Dysfunction (Self-Alienation, Susceptibility to External Influence, Self-Dysregulation, and Contingent Self-Esteem) and three content domains of Identity Clarity (Self-Consistency, Reflective Functioning, and Authentic Living). These content domains were largely well-represented by a single factor. In a series of exploratory structural equation models, emergent factors related similarly to personality, emotion dysregulation, and values and problems in interpersonal relationships.

Traumatic stress symptoms, mental splitting and burnout in health care professionals: a cross-sectional study

Background

Burnout syndrome usually begins with feelings of enthusiasm and idealized visualizations, and it is in contrast with subsequent disillusionment, disappointment, and symptoms which are related to chronic stress experienced later. This tendency to idealization is a parallel to the concept of "mental splitting" described by Kernberg with a pronounced "black and white" perceptual dichotomy between the early idealization and later disillusionment. This study intends examination of relationships between burnout syndrome, traumatic stress and Kernberg's concept of splitting.

Methods and participants

In this study we have assessed 90 health care professionals (50 women and 40 men) working with a population of diabetic patients utilizing Burnout Measure (BM), Splitting index (SI) and Traumatic Stress Checklist - 40 (TSC-40).

Results

Study results indicate significant Spearman correlations between burnout syndrome (BM) and traumatic stress (TSC-40) in population of men (R=0.75, p<0.01) and of women (R=0.61, p<0.01), as well as between burnout syndrome (BM) and splitting (SI) for both genders: men (R=0.40, p<0.01), women (R=0.51, p<0.01). These findings may have implications for prevention and treatment of burnout syndrome.

Conclusion

The current study findings provide implications that the defensive mechanisms of splitting and traumatic stress may allow for the prediction of burnout symptoms. This relation may potentially be of use in both the potential detection and prevention of burnout syndrome.

Mediating role of splitting in relation to attachment styles and shopping addiction

Introduction

Shopping can provide a sense of satisfaction and pleasure; however, if a person's excessive involvement in this behavior starts to negatively impact other aspects of their life, similar to other addictive behaviors like excessive internet use, gaming, and gambling, it may be classified as pathological. Given the lack of agreement regarding the classification of excessive shopping tendencies as a separate mental health condition or addictive behavior, taking a socio-emotional approach to explore the psychological factors that precede this behavior, may offer a better comprehension of it.

Methods

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attachment styles and excessive shopping behavior, as well as to investigate the potential mediating effect of defense mechanisms like splitting on this relationship. Using convenience sampling, a group of 457 stock market employees (116 female, 341 male) between the ages of 24 and 60 were recruited. The researchers utilized a set of validated psychological questionnaires to assess the employees attachment styles, shopping addiction, and splitting tendencies.

Results

The results obtained from both the mediation model and path analysis suggest that attachment styles do not have a direct relationship with shopping addiction. Nonetheless, the study supports the impact of insecure anxious and avoidan attachment styles on splitting. Furthermore, the findings confirm that splitting has a mediating effect on the relationship between attachment styles and splitting.

Discussion

The present study enhanced our comprehension of the subconscious mechanisms underlying shopping tendencies. Specifically, the findings suggest that excessive tendencies towards shopping can be considered a maladaptive response resulting from insecure attachment styles and the unconscious utilization of the splitting defense mechanism.

Identifying Splitting Through Sentiment Analysis

In Kernerg's Object Relations Theory model of personality pathology, splitting, the mutual polarization of aspects of experience, is thought to result in a failure of identity integration. The authors sought to identify a clinician-independent, automated measure of splitting by examining 54 subjects' natural speech. Splitting in these individuals, recruited from the community, was investigated and evaluated with a shortened version of the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO-R). A type of automated sentiment textual analysis called VADER was applied to transcripts from the section of the STIPO-R that probes identity integration. Higher variability in speech valence, more negative minimum valence, and more frequent shifts in valence polarity were associated with more severe identity disturbance. The authors concluded that the degree of splitting elicited during the description of self and others is related to the degree of identity disturbance, and to the degree of negativity and instability of these descriptions of self and others.

Is Splitting Related to Resistance to Proactive Interference? A Process-Oriented Study of Kernberg's Conceptualization of Splitting

INTRODUCTION

Splitting, as a defense mechanism in Kernberg's theory, plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of polarized and oscillating representations of self/other characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although the notion of splitting can be considered from a structural and a functional point of view, almost all empirical studies to date have focused on the former elements to the detriment of related cognitive processes.

METHODS

To further investigate the cognitive processes related to splitting, 60 participants were administered the Splitting Index and indexes of resistance to proactive interference (PI) using the interpersonal recent negative task with words that reflect negative or positive interactions compared to neutral words.

RESULTS

The use of splitting was uniquely and significantly predicted by a higher capacity to resist PI and a lower capacity to consistently maintain this resistance when presented with negative words, above and beyond BPD traits, primitive defenses, and the presentation of neutral words. Results showed no evidence of a relationship between splitting and resistance to PI with positive words.

CONCLUSION

Results appear compatible with Kernberg's conceptualization of splitting as an active defense process that relates to an unstable capacity to inhibit negative representations of the object from entering working memory.

Burnout Syndrome, Mental Splitting and Depression in Female Health Care Professionals

Background

The early days of a given experience are associated with typically what might be characterized as an idealized enthusiasm. Conversely burnout syndrome experienced later in the given experience is associated with disillusionment, disappointment, and symptoms which resemble a depression. This very common propensity is a parallel to the concept of “splitting” described by Kernberg with a pronounced “black and white” perceptual dichotomy between the early idealization and later disillusionment. This study intends examination of relationships between burnout syndrome, depression, and Kernberg’s concept of splitting.

Material/Methods

In this present study, we assessed 132 female health care professionals working with a population of diabetic patients utilizing Burnout Measure (BM) Splitting Index (SI), Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and additional psychometric instruments, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Trauma Symptoms Checklist.

Results

The study results indicated significant Spearman correlations between burnout syndrome as measured by BM and depression (BDI-II) (R=0.62, P<0.01), and burnout syndrome as measured by BM and splitting (SI) (R=0.45, P<0.01). These findings may have implications for prevention and treatment of burnout syndrome.

Conclusions

The current study findings provide implications that the defensive mechanism of splitting may allow for the prediction of burnout symptoms which in turn may allow for the prediction of burnout syndrome. This dynamics may potentially be of use in both the potential detection and prevention of burnout syndrome.

Social Cognition and Borderline Personality Disorder: Splitting and Trust Impairment Findings

The Borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis has its origins in the concept of borderline personality organization (BPO). BPO is rooted in psychoanalytic object relations theory (ORT) which conceptualizes BPD and BPO to exhibit a propensity to view significant others as either idealized or persecutory (splitting) and a trait-like paranoid view of interpersonal relations. From the ORT model, those with BPD think that they will ultimately be betrayed, abandoned, or neglected by significant others, despite periodic idealizations. This article synthesizes the extant literature splitting and trust impairments in BPD, identifies avenues for further investigation, and discusses the relative promise of different methods to evaluate these clinical processes.

The role of heroic doubling in ideologically motivated state and terrorist violence

The psychiatrist Robert Lifton developed his model of 'doubling' to account for the capacity of some human beings to commit atrocities in one compartment of their lives, while continuing to maintain normal social relations in their domestic sphere, a phenomenon which he encountered both in interviews with former Nazi doctors working in concentration camps, and with terrorists belonging to the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult. By supplementing this model with a theory of heroization based on existential anthropology and Jung's concept of the Shadow, a composite heuristic explanatory paradigm is formed, 'heroic doubling', which may contribute to the empathetic understanding of acts of extreme violence being carried out by individuals who do not present symptoms of psychiatric disorder and maintain normal existences, yet are prepared to kill and be killed for a cause that confers on their lives a sense of transcendent purpose and sacrality.

Splitting in Normal and Pathological Populations from the Perspective of Predictive Control Theory

For the purpose of clarification, the defense mechanism of splitting is delimited into normal forms evident in healthy populations and pathological forms common to some psychopathological populations. Normal splitting is defined as a less extreme variant of pathological splitting which tends to evince more palpable splitting of the other-image compared to the self-image, largely as a result of the reasonably stable selfconcept typical of normal populations. Splitting is investigated within the evolutionary context and is presented as possessing adaptive antecedents which facilitate extrapsychic survival as it relates to intrapsychic survival. A new theory of splitting, entitled predictive control theory (PCT), is proposed which conceptualizes splitting as the facilitation of prediction and perceived control under threatening and/or stressful periods. This framework conceptualizes splitting as working with, rather than against, anxiety to facilitate rapid survival actions. The PCT model is examined in both normal and pathological development and adulthood.

Splitting, impulsivity, and intimate partnerships in young obese women seeking bariatric treatment

BACKGROUND

Splitting represents a defense mechanism that describes fragmentation of conscious experience that may occur in various psychopathological conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of splitting with disturbed cognitive and affective functions related to impulsivity and intimate partnerships in a group of obese patients indicated for bariatric treatment and compare the results with other obese patients and patients with bulimia nervosa.

METHODS

In this clinical study, we assessed 102 young women. The sample was divided into three subgroups: obese women (N=30), obese women indicated for bariatric treatment (N=48), and patients with bulimia nervosa (N=24). The patients were assessed using Splitting Index and Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and selected information about their intimate partnership was documented for all the participants.

RESULTS

The main results of this study indicate significant differences in the relationship of splitting and impulsivity with difficulties in intimate partnerships. These differences discriminate obese patients indicated for bariatric treatment from other obese patients and patients with bulimia nervosa.

CONCLUSION

These findings may have significant implications for treatment of the obese patients indicated for bariatric treatment and their presurgery psychological evaluations.

Emotion regulation as a mediator in the relationship between attachment and depressive symptomatology: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Attachment theory has been conceptualised as an emotion regulation theory. Research attributes the occurrence of depressive symptoms to a dysfunction of emotion regulation. Anxious attachment and avoidant attachment, which are two dimensions of insecure attachment, are hypothesised to lead to the development of hyperactivating and deactivating emotion regulation strategies.

METHODS

This systematic review examines the literature on the role of emotion regulation and its relationship with attachment and depressive symptomatology. Furthermore, we examined evidence for hyperactivating and deactivating strategies.

RESULTS

Nineteen papers were identified. Adolescent studies demonstrated associations of varying strength and found unreliable and contradictory results for emotion regulation as a mediator. Conversely, adult studies provided strong evidence for emotion regulation as a mediator. The hypothesis that hyperactivating strategies mediate anxious attachment and depressive symptoms was consistently supported. Mixed evidence was provided for deactivating strategies as mediators to avoidant attachment and depressive symptomatology.

LIMITATIONS

Limitations of methodology and quality of studies are identified with particular attention drawn to problems with conceptual singularity and multicollinearity.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite mixed variable findings, this review indicates that emotion regulation is a mediator between attachment and depression. Hyperactivating strategies, in particular, have been consistently noted as mediators for anxious attachment and depressive symptomatology, whereas evidence for deactivating strategies as mediators between avoidant attachment and depressive symptoms has been mixed. Future research should test the mediators of attachment and symptoms and examine theoretically grounded models of psychopathology, such as metacognitive and cognitive models using clinical samples.

Identifying indicators of defensive activity in narration about important interpersonal relations

<b>Background</b><br /> One of the main components of psychological conversation that influence communication is psychological defensiveness. 
In the paper I propose processual – situational understanding of defensiveness, and its measurement based on coding system. Preliminary results on link between personality traits and defensiveness in people’s narratives are presented as well.<br /> <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> To test proposed coding system, study was conducted with participants presenting different levels of personality organization’s (borderline: n = 35, 20 women, M = 26.09, SD = 4.82, neurotic: n = 29, 24 women, M = 25.90, SD = 5.25, integrated: n = 31, 26 women, M = 21.94, SD = 1.69). Correlation method was applied (Borderline Personality Inventory, Neuroticism Scale, Emotion Control Inventory), as well as narrative’s interviews. Participants’ statements were coded by competent judges (defensiveness and coherence of narratives), and by automatic lexical analyses (descriptive indicators).<br /> <br /> <b>Results</b><br /> Results indicate that proposed defensiveness coding system is a set of heterogeneous indicators, and four groups of indicators could be extracted. Correlations between those indicators and expression control (positive relation), and coherence of narratives (negative relation). Moreover, differences between borderline participants and neurotic ones emerged.<br /> <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> Proposed coding system seems to be a heterogeneous but useful tool for assessing defensiveness during psychological interviews. It could be applied as an element of a procedural control measures, directed to test the reliability of psychological conversation.

Splitting in schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder

Background

Splitting describes fragmentation of conscious experience that may occur in various psychiatric disorders. A purpose of this study is to examine relationships between psychological process of splitting and disturbed cognitive and affective functions in schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Methods

In the clinical study, we have assessed 30 patients with schizophrenia and 35 patients with BPD. The symptoms of splitting were measured using self-reported Splitting Index (SI). As a measure of semantic memory disorganization we have used verbal fluency test. Other psychopathological symptoms were assessed using Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS).

Results

Main results show that SI is significantly higher in BPD group than in schizophrenia, and on the other hand, verbal fluency is significantly lower in schizophrenia group. Psychopathological symptoms measured by HoNOS are significantly higher in the BPD group than in schizophrenia. Significant relationship was found between verbal fluency and the SI “factor of others” (Spearman r = −0.52, p<0.01) in schizophrenia patients.

Conclusions

Processes of splitting are different in schizophrenia and BPD. In BPD patients splitting results to mental instability, whereas in schizophrenia the mental fragmentation leads to splitting of associations observed as lower scores of verbal fluency, which in principle is in agreement with Bleuler’s historical concept of splitting in schizophrenia.

An investigation of self-ambivalence in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Individuals vulnerable to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are hypothesized to have ambivalence about their self-worth, morality and lovability [Guidano, V., & Liotti, G. (1983). Cognitive processes and emotional disorders. New York: Guildford Press]. The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-ambivalence was associated with OCD phenomena and beliefs relevant to OCD. It also examined whether patients with OCD had higher levels of self-ambivalence compared to non-clinical controls and patients with other anxiety disorders. Participants were 73 OCD patients, 50 patients with another anxiety disorder, 225 non-clinical undergraduate students and 43 non-clinical community controls. They completed measures of self-ambivalence, OCD phenomena, OCD-relevant beliefs, depression, anxiety and self-esteem. Self-ambivalence was significantly associated with OCD phenomena and OCD-relevant beliefs, after controlling for self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Further, OCD participants were significantly more ambivalent than the non-clinical groups, but did not differ from anxious controls. It was argued that these results provide a basis for extending the cognitive-behavioural model of OCD to include ambivalent self-perceptions as a component of the cognitive mechanisms relevant to the disorder.

Borderline personality disorder features: the role of self-discrepancies and self-complexity

OBJECTIVES

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) involves disordered self-conceptions, along with dysphoria and anxiety. The present study examined the role of actual-ideal (AI) and actual-ought (AO) self-discrepancies, and self-complexity as predictors of borderline personality features in a student population.

METHOD

AI and AO self-discrepancy magnitudes across all self-domains were assessed, along with self-complexity, idiographically and nomothetically. Borderline personality features were assessed using subscales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2).

RESULTS

Both AI and AO self-discrepancies were directly related to BPD personality features, in that those with larger self-discrepancies of both types reported more features. Self-complexity had no direct relationship to BPD personality features; rather, it moderated the relationship between AI, but not AO, self-discrepancies and BPD personality features. For individuals low in self-complexity, a stronger relationship between AI self-discrepancies and BPD personality features existed.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is novel in its consideration of the impact of features of the self-system on BPD personality features. It highlights the important role that AO self-discrepancies, and the combined role of AI self-discrepancies and self-complexity, have in increasing vulnerability to BPD. The findings suggest that different pathways might be involved in the vulnerability to BPD, depending on self-discrepancy type and level of self-complexity.

Self-esteem and organization of valenced information about others: The "Jekyll and Hyde"-ing of relationship partners

The authors theorize that individuals with high self-esteem functionally integrate positive and negative partner information in memory, whereas those low in self-esteem segregate such information. The authors obtained support for this view in 7 studies. In a first set, participants judged whether positive and negative traits presented in an alternating or nonalternating order applied to a partner. Low but not high self-esteem individuals were slowed by the alternating order when judging relationship partners (but not inanimate objects). In a 2nd set, participants answered questions tapping integrated thinking, self-esteem, and other attributes. Higher self-esteem was associated with more integrated thinking when other attributes were controlled. In a final study, anxiously attached individuals were more labile in rating their spouse over a 5-day period.

Irrational beliefs, attitudes about competition, and splitting

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) theoretically promotes actualization of both individualistic and social-oriented potentials. In a test of this assumption, the Belief Scale and subscales from the Survey of Personal Beliefs served as measures of what REBT presumes to be pathogenic irrationalities. These measures were correlated with the Hypercompetitive Attitude Scale (HCAS), the Personal Development Competitive Attitude Scale (PDCAS), factors from the Splitting Index, and self-esteem. Results for the HCAS and Self-Splitting supported the REBT claim about individualistic self-actualization. Mostly nonsignificant and a few counterintuitive linkages were observed for irrational beliefs with the PDCAS, Family-Splitting, and Other-Splitting, and these data suggested that REBT may be less successful in capturing the "rationality" of a social-oriented self-actualization.