defense mechanisms

Question 1

Compensation

Answer 1

Overachieving in one area to compensate for failures in another. For example, someone who feels insecure academically might compensate by excelling in athletics.

Question 2

Conversion

Answer 2

Conversion is a type of defense mechanism that converts cognitive tensions and anxiety into physical symptoms.

Question 3

Denial

Answer 3

Denial functions to protect the ego from things with which the person cannot cope.

Question 4

Displacement

Answer 4

Displacement involves taking out our frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening.

Question 5

Dissociation

Answer 5

Becoming separated or removed from your experience. When dealing with something stressful, for example, you might mentally and emotionally disengage yourself from the situation.

Question 6

Identification

Answer 6

The internalization or reproduction of behaviors observed in others, such as a child developing the behavior of his or her parents without conscious realization

Question 7

Intellectualization

Answer 7

This defense mechanism allows us to avoid thinking about the stressful, emotional aspect of the situation and instead focus only on the intellectual component

Question 8

Projection

Answer 8

is a defense mechanism that involves taking your own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.

Question 9

Rationalization

Answer 9

rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true reasons for the behavior.

Question 10

Reaction Formation

Answer 10

reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling, impulse, or behavior.3 An example of reaction formation would be treating someone you strongly dislike in an excessively friendly manner in order to hide your true feelings.

Question 11

Regression

Answer 11

When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development.

Question 12

Splitting

Answer 12

an immature defense whereby polarized views of self and others arise due to intolerable conflicting emotions. A person employing splitting may idealize someone at one time (seeing the person as “all good”) and devalue them the next (seeing the person as “all bad”).

Question 13

Sublimation

Answer 13

a defense mechanism that allows us to act out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form.

Question 14

Suppression

Answer 14

Sometimes you might do this consciously by forcing the unwanted information out of your awareness

Question 15

Undoing

Answer 15

Trying to make up for what you feel are inappropriate thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. For example, if you hurt someone’s feelings, you might offer to do something nice for them in order to assuage your anxiety or guilt.