Sleep Med Psychophysiol.  2013 Dec;20(2):82-87.

Circadian Preference and Defense in Medical Students : Greater Consumption and Lesser Sublimation Predicting Eveningness

• Lee SJ
• Park CS
• Kim BJ
• Lee CS
• Cha BS
• Kang H

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Previous studies have reported an association between circadian preference and personality. Defense mechanism is unconscious ego process which deals with an individual's anxiety and is closely associated with one's personality. Our aim is to investigate the association between defense mechanism and circadian preference in medical students.
METHODS
One hundred forty eight medical students (70 males, 78 females), aged 22 to 30, answered the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Morningness-eveningness Questionnaire, and Korean version of Defense Style Questinnaire.
RESULTS
Consumption (beta=-0.262, p=0.001) and being a male (beta=0.175, p=0.031) were significant positive predictors of eveningness, while sublimation (beta=0.185, p=0.023) was a significant negative predictor of eveningness.
CONCLUSION
Our study showed a relationship between specific defense mechanisms (i.e., consumption and sublimation) and eveningness in medical students, but it did not address whether the relationship is a causal one.

Keyword

Eveningness; Consumption; Sublimation; Medical students

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
Depression
Ego
Humans
Male
Surveys and Questionnaires
Students, Medical*
Sublimation*