Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Adaptive: Man forgets his wife’s birthday after a marital fight.
Maladaptive: Woman is unable to enjoy sex after having pushed out of awareness a traumatic sexual incident from childhood.
Repression
Adaptive: Woman who is angry with her boss writes a short story about a heroic woman. By definition, this defense mechanism is always constructive.
Maladaptive: None
Sublimation
Adaptive: A four-year-old boy with a new baby brother starts sucking his thumb and wanting a bottle.
Maladaptive: Man who loses promotion starts complaining to others, does sloppy work, misses appointments, and arrives late for meetings.
Regression
Adaptive: A patient criticizes a nurse after his family fails to visit.
Maladaptive: A child who is unable to acknowledge fear of his father becomes fearful of animals.
Displacement
Adaptive: A man who is unconsciously attracted to other women teases his wife about flirting.
Maladaptive: A woman who has repressed an attraction toward other women refuses to socialize. She fears another woman will make homosexual advances toward her.
Projection
Adaptive: A short man becomes assertively verbal and excels in business.
Maladaptive: Individual drinks alcohol when self-esteem is low to diffuse discomfort temporarily.
Compensation
Adaptive: Recovering alcoholic constantly preaches about the evils of alcoholic beverages.
Maladaptive: Mother who has an unconscious hostility toward her daughter is overprotective with her daughter from harm, interfering with the daughter’s normal growth and development.
Reaction Formation
Adaptive: A man reacts to news of the death of a loved one by saying, “No, I don’t believe you. The doctor said he was fine.”
Maladaptive: A woman whose husband died 3 years earlier still keeps his clothes in the closet and talks about him in the present tense.
Denial
Adaptive: Student is unable to take a final exam because of a terrible headache.
Maladaptive: Man becomes blind after seeing his wife flirt with other men.
Conversion
Adaptive: After flirting with her male secretary, a woman buys her husband tickets to a show.
Maladaptive: A Man with rigid and moralistic beliefs and repressed sexuality is driven to wash his hands to gain composure around attractive women.
Undoing
Adaptive: Employee says, “I didn’t get a raise because the boss doesn’t like me.”
Maladaptive: Father who thinks his son was fathered by another man excuses his malicious treatment of the boy by saying, “He is lazy and disobedient,” when that is not the case.
Rationalization
Adaptive: Five-year-old girl dresses in her mother’s shoes and dress and meets her father at the door.
Maladaptive: Young boy thinks a neighborhood pimp with money and drugs is someone to emulate.
Identification
Adaptive: After his wife’s death, the husband has transient complaints of chest pain and difficulty breathing-the symptoms his wife had before she died.
Maladaptive: Young child whose parents were overcritical and belittling grows up thinking she is inferior. She has taken on her parents’ evaluation of her as part of her self-image.
Introjection
Adaptive: A businessman who is preparing to make an important speech later in the day is told by his wife that morning that she wants a divorce. Although visibly upset, he puts the incident aside until after his speech, when he can give the matter his total concentration.
Maladaptive: A woman who feels a lump in her breast shortly before leaving for a 3-week vacation puts the information in the back of her mind until after returning from her vacation.
Suppression
