8 Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
What is repression?
Motivated forgetting
What does projection mean?
Attributing one’s own unacceptable feelings and impulses to someone else
What does displacement mean?
Shifting impulses towards a more acceptable or less threatening target
What does Sublimation mean?
Taking out unacceptable feelings in a socially acceptable way
What does Regression mean
Retreating to a more immature level of behavior in defense against anxiety/frustration
What are these defense mechanisms a part of?
They’re a part of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
What are defense mechanisms?
Largely unconscious mental strategies to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety
What does rationalization mean?
Offering socially acceptable reasons in place of the real reasons
What does denial mean?
Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happening in the current/present
What does reaction formation mean?
Transforming anxiety producing thoughts into their opposites in consciousness
