Coping strategies

Question 1

Coping stategy vs. Defense mechanisms

Answer 1

Coping strategies = voluntary

defense mechanisms = automatic, involuntary, and usually unconscious

Question 2

acting out

Answer 2

emotional conflict is dealt with through actions rather than feelings

Question 3

compensation

Answer 3

enables one to make up for real or imagined deficiencies (person who stutters becomes a writer)

Question 4

Conversion

Answer 4

repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body function

Question 5

Decompensation

Answer 5

deterioration of existing defenses

Question 6

Denial

Answer 6

primitive defense, inability to acknowledge true significance of feelings

Question 7

Devaluation

Answer 7

frequently used by people with Borderline Personality Disorder. Person attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or another

Question 8

Dissociation

Answer 8

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 them (commonly known as daydreaming)

Question 9

Displacement

Answer 9

directing an impulse or feelings elsewhere to avoid consequences (man mad at boss kicks his dog)

Question 10

Idealization

Answer 10

overestimation of an admired aspect or attribute of another

Question 11

Identification

Answer 11

person patterns themselves after a significant other. Plays a major role in personality development

Question 12

Identification with the aggressor

Answer 12

mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor. usually involves behaving like the aggressor

Question 13

incorporation

Answer 13

primitive mechanism in which psychic representation of a person is figuratively ingested

Question 14

introjection

Answer 14

loved or hated external objects are symbolically absorbed within self

Question 15

intellectualization

Answer 15

person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic

Question 16

isolation of affect

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Projection

Answer 17

primitive defense. attributing one’s own attitudes and feelings to some external object or person

Question 18

projection identification

Answer 18

form of projection utilized by people with Borderline Personality Disorder. Unconsciously perceiving others behavior as a reflection of one’s own identity

Question 19

Rationalization

Answer 19

giving believable explanation for irrational behavior

Question 20

Reaction formation

Answer 20

person adopts affect, ideas or behaviors that are the opposite of those than those they harbor (being excessively sweet to mask anger)

Question 21

regression

Answer 21

partial or symbolic return to more infantile patters of reacting or thinking

Question 22

Repression

Answer 22

expressed clinically as amnesia or forgetting serving to banish unacceptable ideas or impulses from consciousness

Question 23

Splitting

Answer 23

Associated with BPD. Person perceives self and others as “all good” or “all bad”

Question 24

sublimation

Answer 24

Potentially maladaptive feelings or behaviors are diverted into socially acceptable, adaptive channels (person who has angry feelings channels them into athletics)

Question 25

Substitution

Answer 25

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

Question 26

symbolization

Answer 26

a mental representation stands for some other thing, class of thing, or attribute

Question 27

Turning against self

Answer 27

defense to deflect hostile aggression or other unacceptable impulses from another to self

Question 28

Undoing

Answer 28

person uses words or actions so symbolically reverse or negate unacceptable thoughts or feelings. (person compulsively washes hands to deal with obsessive thoughts)