Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Alter-Reid.
This paper represents a retrospective attempt to conceptualize defensive postures observed in treating adult female incest survivors. The sample includes psychiatric inpatients and members of an outpatient self-help group. Dynamics of secretiveness, superficial compliance, and guardedness are reviewed in terms of the theoretical underpinnings from the literature and case material.
Although the concept of interpersonal pursuing and distancing has been introduced and used clinically, the lack of a reliable and valid measure has deterred its more formal investigation and relevance to personality theory. The Pursuing-Distancing (P-D) Scale, a 92-item measure of the behavioral expression of these characteristics, was developed. Evidence for internal consistency as well as internal support of construct validity is presented and discussed. An 80-item revised scale is available from the authors and is currently being evaluated in a variety of external validation settings.