Common Defense Mechanisms

Question 1

Denial

Answer 1

avoiding awareness of some painful reality

Question 2

Tantrums

Answer 2

acting out

Question 3

changes in personality, memory or consciousness, especially in newly diagnosed AIDS and cancer patients

Answer 3

dissocatiation, possible multiple personality disorder

Question 4

A common reaction in newly diagnosed AIDS patient who is not ready to accept diagnosis

Answer 4

denial

Question 5

Mother yells at child because father yelled at her

Answer 5

displacement

Question 6

men fixating on sports games

Answer 6

fixation

Question 7

abused child identifies with abuser

Answer 7

indentification

Question 8

describing a murder and all the graphic details without any emotional response

Answer 8

isolation (of affect)

Question 9

A man who wants another women thinks his wife is cheating on him

Answer 9

projection

Question 10

after getting fired, claiming that the job was not important anyway

Answer 10

rationalization

Question 11

a patient with libidinous thought enters a monastery

Answer 11

reaction formation

Question 12

Bedwetting in a previously toilet-trained child when hospitalized

Answer 12

regression

Question 13

not remembering a conflictual or traumatic experience, pressing bad thoughts into unconscious

Answer 13

repression

Question 14

a patient says all the nurses are cold and insensitive but the doctors are warm and friendly

Answer 14

splitting

Question 15

mafia boss makes a large donation to charity

Answer 15

altruism

Question 16

nervous med school student jokes about boards

Answer 16

humor

Question 17

teenager’s aggression toward father is redirected to perform well in sports

Answer 17

sublimination

Question 18

choosing not to worry about the big game until it is time to play it

Answer 18

suppression