Defense Mechanism Flashcards
Helps the person cope with disappointment by blaming external circumstances or another person.
E.g. An abused spouse hits her spouse as punishment after being hit
by her spouse.
Getting turned down for a date and saying that person was really sloppy always.
Rationalization
Refuses to let into awareness unacceptable impulses but remains unconsciously operative in behavior.
E.g when a young boy has a phobia of dogs but cannot remember the first time he was afraid of them.
Repression
When an affect is transferred from one object to another.
E.g. Yelling at an spouse because he is unable to express anger towards his boss.
Or Compulsively eating lollipops after you have quite smoking.
Displacement
Displaying a particular characteristic or trait that has been absorbed into one’s own personality.
E.g. A young person is deciding to follow in her fathers footsteps and become a lawyer.
Identification
A process by which content is separated from repressed affect.
E.g a person is speaking of his traumatic childhood as if he’s reading a scripted story.
Intellectualization
Characterized by rigor and self-denial
E.g. Refusing to drink to eat or drink until a major work project is complete.
To cope with sexual tension an adolescent refuses to engage in all sexual pleasurable activities.
Asceticism
A process by which unacceptable impulses are expressed as their opposites. You do the opposite of the way you feel about someone.
E.g. An angry supervisor is being overly nice to his supervisor.
A man who is gay uses this defense mechanism when he openly dates women and criticizes gay men.
Reaction formation
Placing unacceptable feelings from the person feeling them onto the other person.
A person is using this when he complains that no one likes him but in reality he does not like himself or others.
Projection
Distorts reality and does not acknowledge emotion
E.g a person is using this when he continues to eat unhealthy foods despite his doctors orders to eat healthy.
Denial
A process by which we avoid being punished for undesirable thoughts or actions.
E.g. A person is overly nice to a person she had just insulted in her mind.
A spouse unconsciously undoes his many adulterous acts by buying his partner lavish gifts.
A spouse buys his wife lavish gifts after to help her overcome his many adulterous acts.
Undoing
