Personality traits and defensive styles during the lockdwon of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic, as a cumulative traumatic experience, has had a notable effect on the lives of people around the world and considerably impacted their overall psychological health. This study investigated the behavioral styles with which Italians have faced lockdown periods and all restrictive measures developed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, focusing on the role of personality and defensive strategies. An online survey, including several measures such as the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form and the Defense Mechanism Rating Scales-Short Form-30, was developed to collect demographic data and information related to the COVID-19 experience, personality traits, defenses, and symptom patterns of 380 individuals (70% women, 30% men; Mage = 34.25, SD = 11.95). Four distinct behavioral patterns were identified: adaptive introvert, adaptive extrovert, maladaptive introvert, and maladaptive extrovert styles. The maladaptive introvert style significantly correlated with negative affectivity and detachment, whereas maladaptive extrovert style correlated with antagonism, disinhibition and psychoticism. Moreover, individuals with maladaptive introvert style typically used immature defenses such as autistic fantasy, rationalization, and dissociation, whereas individuals with maladaptive extrovert style used defenses of disavowal and image distortion. The other two defensive styles did not show significant correlations with distinct personality traits but were related to obsessional and mature defenses. The study highlights the crucial role of individual personality characteristics and defensive strategies in adjusting to unexpected and traumatic events and changing circumstances, along with coping effectively when confronted with uncertain and stressful situations. These results emphasize the need to develop effective psychological intervention programs based on individual’ psychological functioning in order to promote their mental health and well-being.