Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Compensation
Used to make up for perceived deficiencies and cover up shortcomings r/t those deficiences
Adaptive: Short, weak boy focusing on school
Maladaptive: Drinking when self-esteem is low
Conversion
Unconscious transformation of anxiety into a physical symptom with no organic cause
Adaptive: Student unable to take exam due to headache
Maladaptive: Man becomes blind after seeing wife with another man.
Denial
Denying or ignoring existance of unpleasant thoughts/feelings/wishes.
Adaptive: Man not believing a doctor when told the news of a friends death.
Maladaptive: Woman whose husband died 3 years before keeping his clothing and pretending he is still alive.
Displacement
transference of emotions associated with an object/person to another nonthreatening object/person.
Adaptive: Patient criticizes nurse after family fails to visit.
Maladaptive: Child unable to acknowledge fear of father becomes fearful of animals.
Dissociation
Disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment
Adaptive: Student focusing on studying in a noisy room
Maladaptive: Woman finds herself disconnected from reality due to childhood abuse.
Identification
attributing to oneself the characteristics of another person/group. Can be unconscious or conscious.
Adaptive: 8-year old dresses like teacher and plays “school” with her friends.
Maladaptive: Boy thinks neighborhood gang members are people to look up to.
Intellectualization
Process by which events are analyzed based on remote, cold facts and without passion.
Adaptive: Man leads child to safety despite his farm being destroyed by a tornado.
Maladaptive: Man focuses on day to day life instead of processing this grief over the death of his wife.
Introjection
Process by which the outside world is incorporated into a persons view of self.
Adaptive: Man has C/O chest pain and difficulty breathing - the same complaints his wife had before her death.
Maladaptive: Young child who was belittled grows up thinking she is no good.
Projection
UNCONSCIOUS rejection of emotionally unacceptable features and attributing them to other people, objects, or situations.
Adaptive: Man attracted to other women teases wife about her flirting
Maladaptive: Latent homosexual man refuses to have male friends in fear they will make sexual advances toward him.
Rationalization
Justifying illogical or unreasonable ideas, actions, feelings
Adaptive: “I didn’t get the job because my boss doesn’t like me.”
Maladaptive: A man who thinks his son was fathered by another man excuses his treatment of the boy by saying “He is lazy and disobedient” even though that is not the case.
Reaction formation
unacceptable feelings or behaviors are controlled and kept out of awareness by developing opposite behavior or emotion.
Adaptive: Recovering alcoholic preaches about the evils of drinking
Maladaptive: Woman with unconscious hostility toward her daughter is overprotective, interfereing with normal growth.
Regression
reverting to an earlier, more primitive and childlike behavior
Adaptive: 4 year old starts sucking his thumb when his baby sister comes home.
Maladaptive: Man who loses promotion hands in sloppy work and comes in late for meetings
Repression
first line psychological defense against anxiety
UNCONSCIOUS
Adaptive: man forgets wife’s birthday after a marital fight
Maladaptive: Woman is unable to enjoy sex after traumatic sexual incident in childhood.
Splitting
Inability to integrate the positive and negative qualities of oneself and others. People/things are either good or bad
Adaptive: Toddler views her parents as superhumans
Maladaptive: Woman has difficulty maintaining relationships more than a few weeks because everyone becomes flawed
Sublimation
UNCONSCIOUS process of substituting mature, constructive activity for immature, destructive impulses
Adaptive: Woman angry with her boss writes a short story about a heroic woman.
Maladaptive - ALWAYS CONSTRUCTIVE
Suppression
CONSCIOUS denial of disturbing situation or feelings.
Adaptive: Student studying for important test breaks up with boyfriend. Pushes aside her pain until after the test.
Maladaptive: Woman feels a lump in her breast but decides to go on her vacation anyway and deal with it when she gets back.
Undoing
Person makes up for an act. Most commonly seen in children
Adaptive: After flirting with a male friend, a woman takes her husband out for a romantic evening.
Maladaptive: Man with rigid, moralistic beliefs and repressed sexuality is driven to wash his hands when around attractive women.
