Letting our guard down: Coping with disasters like Superstorm Sandy.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to analyze how defense styles influence a person's sense of Subjective Well-Being after a natural disaster. Sixty-one participants were recruited from the undergraduate and graduate programs at Kean University. The participants completed two questionnaires on defense styles and satisfaction with life, respectively. Data was collected from the Defense Style Questionnaire (Bond, 1986) and a modified version of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985). Data was analyzed through linear regression. Based on the findings two significant main effects were found: that there is a negative correlation between self-sacrificing defense styles and Subjective Well-Being. Also, an interaction was found suggesting that it may be possible to predict the subjective well-being of a person based on their defense styles, age, and gender. Future research should focus on extending the research on the negative relationship between self-sacrifice and defense style, and also on specifying which defense mechanisms call forth certain feelings of well-being after disasters.