Defense & Illness Response

Question 1

Unconscious mental processes used to resolve conflict and prevent undesirable feelings (denial, dissociation, isolation of affect, etc.)

Answer 1

Ego Defenses

Question 2

Ego Defense; avoiding the awareness or refusing to acknowledge some painful reality

Answer 2

Denial

Question 3

Ego Defense; transferring avoided ideas and feelings to a neutral person or object (Mother yells at her child bc her husband yelled at her)

Answer 3

Displacement

Question 4

Ego Defense; temporary, drastic change in personality, memory or motor behavior to avoid emotional stress (extreme case can be multiple personality disorder)

Answer 4

Dissociation

Question 5

Ego Defense; partially REMAINING at a more childish level of development (adults fixated on video games)

Answer 5

Fixation

Question 6

Ego Defense; modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful (though not necessarily admired) (abused child identifies with an abuser)

Answer 6

Identification

Question 7

Ego Defense; separating feelings from ideas and events (describing murder in graphic detail with no emotional response)

Answer 7

Isolation (of affect)

Question 8

Ego Defense; expressing negativity and performing below what is expected as an indirect show of opposition (disgruntled employee is repeatedly late to work)

Answer 8

Passive Aggression (sarcasm)

Question 9

Ego Defense; attributing an unacceptable internal impulse to an external source (man who wants another woman thinks his wife is cheating on him)

Answer 9

Projection

Question 10

Ego Defense; proclaiming logical reasons for action actually performed for other reasons to avoid self-blame (after getting fired, claiming that the job was not important anyway)

Answer 10

Rationalization

Question 11

Ego Defense; replacing a warded-off idea/feeling by an UNCONSCIOUSLY derived emphasis on the opposite (a patient with libidinous thoughts enters a monastery)

Answer 11

Reaction Formation

Question 12

Ego Defense; turning back maturation and going to an earlier mode of dealing with the world

Answer 12

Regression

Question 13

Ego Defense; INVOLUNTARILY withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (teenager doesn’t remember going to counseling during his parents divorce)

Answer 13

Repression

Question 14

Ego Defense; believing that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to an intolerance of ambiguity; commonly seen in Borderline Personality Disorder (patient says all nurses are cold but that the doctors are warm and friendly)

Answer 14

Splitting

Question 15

Ego Defense; alleviating negative feelings via unsolicited generosity (mafia boss makes large donation to charity)

Answer 15

Altruism

Question 16

Ego Defense; appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking situation (nervous medical student jokes about the boards)

Answer 16

Humor

Question 17

Ego Defense; replacing an unacceptable wish with a course of action that is SIMILAR to the wish but does not conflict with one’s value system (teenager’s aggression toward his father is redirected to perform well in sports)

Answer 17

Sublimation

Question 18

Ego Defense; CONSCIOUSLY withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (choosing to not worry about the big game until it’s time to play)

Answer 18

Suppression