Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Repression
Painful feelings are conscious initially, and then forgotten, but return occasionally. Can range from momentary memory lapses to forgetting the details of a catastrophic event.
Denial
Unpleasant reality is ignored and a realistic interpretation of potentially threatening event replaced by benign but inaccurate ones
Suppression
Constantly used to ignore feelings, a happy place in your head
Projection
The undesirable feelings are attributed to another person or persons
Displacement
Object displacement, anger or another emotion is initially felt toward a person against whom it is unsafe to express it
Reaction formation
Involves behavior that is diametrically opposed to the impulses or feelings that one is repressing
Regression
When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development.
Fixation
People with an oral fixation have problems with drinking, smoking, and nail biting when they are experiencing stressful events.
Identification
Taking on the characteristics of someone else.
Rationalization
An attempt to deny ones true motives by using a reason that is more logical or socially acceptable than ones own reasons.
Isolation
It involves compartmentalizing ones experience so that an event becomes separated from the feelings that associated with it,call owing it to be part of your conscious mind without the threat of painful feelings
Sublimation
Involves rechanneling the energy connected with an unacceptable impulse into one that is more socially acceptable
Compensation
Devoting unusual efforts to achievement in order to overcome feelings of inferiority.
