Defense Mechanisms (ego defenses)

Question 1

defense mechanisms

Answer 1

automatic, involuntary, usually unconscious
attempt to exclude unacceptable thoughts/urges/threats/impulses from awareness for fear of disapproval or punishment
expresses forbidden impulse in symbolic, external form and bind anxiety

Question 2

acting out

Answer 2

dealing with emotional conflict through actions rather than feelings

Question 3

compensation

Answer 3

way to make up for a real or imagined deficiency (short man developing cocky attitude)

Question 4

conversion

Answer 4

repressed urge expressed disguised as a bodily function disturbance (usually of sensory/voluntary nervous system) as pain/deafness/blindness/paralysis

Question 5

decompensation

Answer 5

deterioration of existing defenses

Question 6

denial

Answer 6

primitive defense, inability to acknowledge significance of thoughts/emotions/behavior/external reality that are consciously intolerable

Question 7

devaluation

Answer 7

often used by people with borderline personality traits; attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or others; split of primitive idealization

Question 8

displacement

Answer 8

directing an impulse/wish/feeling toward a person/situation that’s not it’s real object, expression in less threatening situation

Question 9

dissociation

Answer 9

enables the person to split mental function to allow for expression of forbidden/unconscious impulses without accepting responsibility; either because they don’t remember it or not experiencing it as own

Question 10

idealizatoin

Answer 10

overestimation of an admired aspect/attribute of another, conscious/unconscious

Question 11

identification

Answer 11

universal mechanism where person patterns self after a significant other, major role in personality development (superego)

Question 12

identify with aggressor

Answer 12

mastering anxiety by identifying with an aggressor to counteract feelings of helplessness and to feel powerful oneself (abusing others after being abused)

Question 13

Incorporation

Answer 13

primitive mechanism, psychic representation of person (or parts of them) are figuratively ingested

Question 14

inhibition

Answer 14

loss of motivation to engage in activity avoided because it might stir up conflict over forbidden impulses

Question 15

introjection

Answer 15

loved/hated external objects are symbolically absorbed within self

Question 16

isolation of affect

Answer 16

emotional charge removed by separating unacceptable impulse/ideal act from original memory source

Question 17

projection

Answer 17

primitive defense, attributing own disowned attitudes/wishes/feelings/urges to external object

Question 18

projective identification

Answer 18

projection utilized by person with borderline personality organization
for exam-unconsciously perceiving others behavior as reflection of own identity

Question 19

rationalization

Answer 19

3rd line of defense, not unconscious, giving believable explanation for irrational behavior, motivated by unacceptable unconscious wishes or by defenses used to cope with such wishes

Question 20

reaction formation

Answer 20

adopting affect/ideas/attitudes/behaviors that are opposite of those harbored consciously/unconsciously

Question 21

regression

Answer 21

partial/symbolic return to more infantile patterns of reacting or thinking, can be in service to ego

Question 22

repression

Answer 22

key mechanism, expressed clinically by amnesia or symptomatic forgetting to banish unacceptable ideas/fantasies/affects/impulses from consciousness

Question 23

splitting

Answer 23

-associated with borderline, perceives self/others as all good or all bad
-introjects of opposite quality kept apart; ego weakness that can’t neutralize aggression
-leads to selective lack of impulse control
-serves to protect good objects
-cannot integrate the good and bad in others

Question 24

sublimation

Answer 24

potentially maladaptive feelings/behaviors diverted into socially acceptable/adaptive channels

Question 25

substitution

Answer 25

unattainable/unacceptable goal/emotions/object replaced with one more acceptable

Question 26

symbolizaton

Answer 26

mental representation that stands for another thing/attribute
-underlies dream formation with link between latent meaning of symptom and symbol, usually unconscious

Question 27

turning against self

Answer 27

defense to deflect hostile aggression/unacceptable impulses from another to self

Question 28

undoing

Answer 28

use words/actions to symbolically reverse/negate unacceptable thoughts/feelings/actions (washing hands compulsively to deal with obsessive thoughts)

Question 29

DSM5 perspective on defense mechanisms

Answer 29

some are maladaptive (splitting, projecting, acting out) while others could be either adaptive or maladaptive depending on the context, severity, inflexibility (denial, suppression)

Question 30

cognitive dissonance

Answer 30

having to choose between 2 contradictory attitude and beliefs; occurs when options are equally attractive

Question 31

reduce cognitive dissonance by

Answer 31

1. reducing importance of conflicting beliefs
2. acquire new beliefs to change the balance
3. remove conflicting attitude/behavior