SELF-DEFEATING PERSONALITY: IS THERE A SECONDARY GAIN?

Abstract

Summary.-No support was found for the hypothesis that self-defeating behavior results in secondary gain, i.e., more supportive behaviors from others. Two of the eight criteria for diagnosing self-defeating personality disorder involve rejecting opportunities for pleasure (criterion five) and being uninterested in and rejecting people who treat one well (criterion seven). Berglas (1989) has suggested there is a secondary gain for people with self-defeating personality disorder, particularly for those with these two characteristics. Supposedly, certain people respond to these individuals' lack of enjoyment and their disinterest or reiection with efforts to nurture or rescue them. To assess whether this is the case, 53 men and 57 women volunteers from introductory psychology took Schill's SeU-defeating Personality Scale (1990) which has 48 items, six for each of the criteria used in diagnosing this disorder. Sample means (and standard deviations) were for men 21.20 (5.65) and for women 17.95 (5.06). They also took Barrera, Sander, and Ramsay's (1981) Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors. Sample means (and standard deviations) were for men 110.50 (28.06) and for women 112.59 (26.87). If Berglas is right, people having more characteristics of self-defeating personality, particularly characteristics associated with criteria five and seven, should report receiving more supportive transactions from others during the past