Ego Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Compensation
Covering up a real or perceived weakness by emphasizing a trait one considers more desirable.
EX: A physically handicapped boy is unable to participate in football, so he compensates by becoming a great scholar.
Rationalization
Attempting to make excuses or formulate logical reasons to justify unacceptable feelings or behaviors.
EX: John tells the rehab nurse, “I drink because it’s the only way I can deal with my bad marriage and my worse job.”
Denial
Refusing to acknowledge the existence of a real situation or the feelings associated with it.
EX: A woman who drinks alcohol every day and cannot stop fails to acknowledge that she has a problem.
Reaction formation
Preventing unacceptable or undesirable thoughts or behaviors from being expressed by exaggerating opposite thoughts or types of behaviors.
EX: Jane hates nursing. She attended nursing school to please her parents. During career day, she speaks to perspective students about the excellence of nursing as a career.
Displacement
The transfer of feelings from one target to another that is considered less threatening or that is neutral.
EX: A client is angry at his physician, does not express it, but becomes verbally abusive with the nurse.
Regression
Retreating in response to stress to an earlier level of development and the comfort measures associated with that level of functioning.
EX: When 2-year-old Jay is hospitalized for tonsillitis he will drink only from a bottle, even though his mom states he has been drinking from a cup for 6 months.
Identification
An attempt to increase self-worth by acquiring certain attributes and characteristics of an individual one admires.
EX: A teenager who required lengthy rehabilitation after an accident decides to become a physical therapist as a result of his experiences.
Intellectualization
An attempt to avoid expressing actual emotions associated with a stressful situation by using the intellectual processes of logic, reasoning, and analysis.
EX: S’s husband is being transferred with his job to a city far away from her parents. She hides anxiety by explaining to her parents the advantages associated with the move.
Sublimation
Rechanneling of drives or impulses that are personally or socially unacceptable into activities that are constructive
EX: A mother whose son was killed by a drunk driver channels her anger and energy into being the president of the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.
Repression
Involuntarily blocking unpleasant feelings and experiences from one’s awareness.
EX: An accident victim can remember nothing about his accident.
Introjection
Integrating the beliefs and values of another individual into one’s own ego structure.
EX: Children integrate their parents’ value system into the process of conscience formation. A child says to a friend “don’t cheat. it’s wrong.”
Suppression
The voluntary blocking of unpleasant feelings and experiences from one’s awareness.
EX: Scarlett says, “I dont want to think about that now. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
Isolation
Separating a thought or memory from the feeling tone or emotion associated with it.
EX: A young woman describes being attacked and raped, without showing any emotion.
Undoing
Symbolically negating or canceling out an experience that one finds intolerable.
EX: Joe is nervous about his new job and yells at his wife. On his way home he stops and buys her some flowers.
Projection
Attributing feelings or impulses unacceptable to oneself to another person.
EX: Sue feels a strong sexual attraction to her track coach and tells her friend, “He’s coming on to me!”
