Defense Mechanisms

Question 1

Acting Out

Answer 1

emotional conflict is dealt with through actions rather than feelings (ex: instead of talking about feeling neglected, a person will get in trouble to get attention)

Question 2

Compensation

Answer 2

enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies (ex: a person who stutters becomes a very expressive writer; a short man assumes a cocky, overbearing manner

Question 3

Conversion

Answer 3

repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body function, usually of the sensory or voluntary nervous system (as pain, deafness, blindness, paralysis, overbearing manner)

Question 4

Decompensation

Answer 4

deterioration of existing defenses

Question 5

Denial

Answer 5

primitive defense; individual admits that an anxiety-evoking impulse or thought exists, but denies that it is personally relevant

Question 6

Devaluation

Answer 6

a defense mechanism frequently used by persons with borderline personality organization in which a person attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or another. It is the split of primitive idealization

Question 7

Dissociation

Answer 7

process that enables a person to split mental functions in a manner that allows them to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without taking responsibility for the action, either because he or she is unable to remember or because it is not experienced as their own (pathologically expressed as fugue states, amnesia, or dissociative neurosis, or normally expressed as daydreaming - often a trauma response)

Question 8

Displacement

Answer 8

directing an impulse, wish, or feeling toward a person or situation that is not its real object, transfer from original target to a less threatening target so that the drive can be more safely expressed (ex: man is angry at his boss and kicks his dog

Question 9

Idealization

Answer 9

overestimation of an admired aspect of attribute of another

Question 10

Identification

Answer 10

universal mechanism whereby a person patterns themself after a significant other. Plays a major role in personality development, especially superego development

Question 11

Identification with the Agressor

Answer 11

mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor (such as an abusive parent) to counteract feelings of helplessness and to feel powerful oneself. Usually involves behaving like the aggressor (ex: abusing others after one has been abused)

Question 12

Incorporation

Answer 12

primitive mechanism in which psychic representation os a person is (or parts of a person are) figuratively ingested

Question 13

Inhibition

Answer 13

loss of motivation to engage in (usually pleasurable) activity avoided because it might stir up conflict over forbidden impulses (i.e. writing, learning or work blocks or social shyness)

Question 14

Introjection

Answer 14

opposite of projection
involves ascribing the thoughts and behaviors of others to oneself to better control ones affective responses to those thoughts and behaviors (i.e. in severe depression, unconscious unacceptable hatred is turned toward self)

Question 15

Intellectualization

Answer 15

where the person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic. Emotional aspects are completely ignored as being irrelevant. Jargon is often used as a device, by using complex terms, the focus is laced on the words rather than the emotions

Question 16

Isolation of affect

Answer 16

unacceptable impulse, idea, or act is seperated from its original memory source, thereby removing the original emotional charge associated with it

Question 17

Projection

Answer 17

primitive defense; attributing one’s disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings, and urges to some external object or person

Question 18

Projective Identification

Answer 18

form of projection utilized by persons with borderline personality disorder – unconsciously perceiving others’ behavior as a reflection of one’s own identity

Question 19

Rationalization

Answer 19

third line of defense; not unconscious. occurs when an individual interprets behaviors in a way that makes them seem more rational, logical, and/or socially acceptable

Question 20

Reaction Formation

Answer 20

person avoids an anxiety-evoking instinct by actively expressing its opposite (ex: excessive moral zeal masking strong, but repressed asocial impulses or being excessively sweet to mask unconscious anger)

Question 21

Regression

Answer 21

occurs when a person retreats to an earlier, safer stage of development and behaves characteristic of that stage (ex: dependency during illness, acting more childlike)

Question 22

Repression

Answer 22

key mechanism, considered most “basic”; expressed clinically by amnesia or symptomatic forgetting serving to banish unacceptable ideas, fantasies, affects, or impulses from consciousness

Question 23

Splitting

Answer 23

defense mechanism associated with BPD in which a person perceives self and others as “all good” or “all bad”. Splitting serves to protect the god objects. A person cannot integrate the good and the bad in people.

Question 24

Sublimation

Answer 24

potentially maladaptive feelings or behaviors are diverted into socially acceptable, adaptive channels (ex: a person who is angry, channels it into athletics)

Question 25

Substitution

Answer 25

unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion or object is replaced by one more attainable or acceptable

Question 26

Symbolization

Answer 26

mental representation stands for some other thing, class of things, or attribute. This mechanism underlines dream formation and some other symptoms (such as conversion reactions, obsessions, compulsions) with a link between latent meaning or the symptom and the symbol; usually unconscious

Question 27

Turning against self

Answer 27

defense to deflect hostile aggression to other unacceptable impulses form another to self

Question 28

Undoing

Answer 28

a person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions (ex: a person compulsively washing hands to deal with obsessive thoughts)