Defenses against Anxiety

Question 1

defense mechanisms

Answer 1

Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflicts of every day life. Defense mechanisms involve denials or distortions of reality.

Question 2

repression

Answer 2

A defense mechanism that involves unconscious denial of the existence of something that causes anxiety.

Question 3

denial

Answer 3

A defense mechanism that involves denying the existence of an external threat or traumatic event.

Question 4

reaction formation

Answer 4

A defense mechanism that involves expressing an id impulse that is the opposite of the one that is truly driving the person.

Question 5

projection

Answer 5

A defense mechanism that involves attributing a disturbing impulse to someone else.

Question 6

regression

Answer 6

A defense mechanism that involves retreating to an earlier, less frustrating period of life and displaying the usually childish behaviors characteristic of that more secure time.

Question 7

rationalization

Answer 7

A defense mechanism that involves reinterpreting our behavior to make it more accept- able and less threatening to us.

Question 8

displacement

Answer 8

A defense mechanism that involves shifting id impulses from a threatening object or from one that is unavailable to an object that is available; for example, replacing hostility toward one’s boss with hostility toward one’s child.

Question 9

sublimation

Answer 9

A defense mechanism that involves altering or displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual energy into socially acceptable behaviors.