People scoring higher on a scale of self-defeating personality perceived their family environments as lacking cohesiveness. Men also perceived their family environments as discouraging open expression of feelings, being unconcerned about school and work achievement, and providing no ethical or religious values. Results were seen as lending validity to clinical theories of masochism which relate lack of family support and lack of reinforcement for assertive, efficacious behavior to the development of self-defeating behavior patterns.
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