Identity diffusion and psychopathology: comparison between adult psychiatric patients and normals.

OBJECTIVES

This research studied the characteristics of self representations and ego identity in adult psychiatric patients with different mental disorders according to DSM-IV (APA, 1994) and Kernberg's structural criteria for personality organizations (1986).

DESIGN AND

METHODS

We constructed Identity Diffusion Questionnaire (IDQ), a self-report measure based on Kernberg's criteria for identity diffusion (1986), and Actual Self - Ideal Self - Significant Other Scales (AISS), a measure for discrepancies between perceived actual self, ideal self and significant other. Both measurements reached sufficiently internal consistency and construct validity. The sample of 186 adult psychiatric in- and outpatients and 109 controls of both sexes served as subjects in the study.

RESULTS

All groups of patients reached higher scores on IDQ and AISS compared to healthy controls. Patients revealed more identity problems than normals and they also had bigger discrepancy between actual and ideal self than healthy participants.

CONCLUSION

These results support psychodynamic and cognitive theories and empirical studies that disturbances in self representations and ego identity are related to many different mental disorders. Results also confirmed the claim that identity disturbances are related to big discrepancies in representation of real and ideal self. The hypothesis that severity of identity diffusion is in a positive correlation with severity of pathology was not confirmed. There may be some uncontrolled factors which influenced the results. Despite some theoretical and methodological limitations the present study confirms the relation between disturbances of ego identity and different psychopathology.