Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Repression
Painful feelings are conscious initially and the forgotten, but return occasionally. Repression can range from momentary memory lapses to forgetting the details of a catastrophic event, such as a murder or an earthquake.
Denial
Unpleasant reality is ignored, and a realistic interpretation of potentially threatening events are replaced by benign but inaccurate ones.
Suppression
Unpleasant feelings are suppressed through a conscious effort to ignore them.
Projection
In projection the undesirable feelings are attributed to another person or persons.
Displacement
Object displace,eat, anger or another emotion is initially felt toward a person against whom it is unsafe to express it. (In children for example towards a parent)
Reaction formation
An example of reaction formation would be treating someone you strongly dislike in an excessively friendly manner in order to hide your true feelings.
Regression
When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development.
Fixation
Example: people with an oral fixation have problems with drinking, smoking, and nail biting when they experiencing stressful events.
Identification
Taking on the characteristics of someone else.
Rationalization
An attempt to deny one’s true motives by using a reason that is more logical or socially acceptable than one’s own reasons.
Isolation
Compartmentalizing one’s experience so that an event becomes separated from the feelings that associated with It, allowing
Sublimation
Involves re-channeling the energy connected with an unmade impulse into one that is more socially acceptable.
Compensation
Devoting unusual efforts to achieve in order to overcome feelings of inferiority.
