THE CORRELATIOAN OF DEFENSE MECHANISMS AND SELF-ESTEEM AT DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

The article presents the applicability of psychological defense mechanisms in different age groups of personality development, the levels of self-esteem development and correlations between individual psychological defense mechanisms and self-esteem. The data obtained show the frequency of use of psychological defense mechanisms, as well as the interaction of self-esteem of people of both age groups (14-15 and 22-25 years old) with psychological defense mechanisms. The aim of our research was to study the features of the correlation between defense mechanisms and self-esteem at different stages of personality development. From the results obtained, it becomes clear that the psychological defense of a teenager is realized primarily through elementary mechanisms. However, mature defense mechanisms are already used by the adolescent, although not as often as elementary defense mechanisms. And young people aged 22-25 more often use more mature defense mechanisms, such as intellectualization, compensation. The frequency of application of defense mechanisms of denial, regression, displacement is decreasing. The study of correlations between self-esteem and defense mechanisms did not reveal correlations in adolescents, and among 22-25 year olds, correlations of medium strength were revealed with compensation, projection, displacement and intellectualization.