Ego Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Overachievement in one area to offset real or perceived deficiencies in another area.
Compensation
Expression of an emotional conflict through the development of a physical symptom, usually sensorimotor in nature.
Conversion
Failure to acknowledge an unbearable condition; failure to admit the reality of a situation or how one enables the problem to continue.
Denial
Ventilation of intense feelings toward persons less threatening than the one who aroused those feelings.
Displacement
Dealing with emotional conflict by a temporary alteration in consciousness or identity.
Dissociation
Immobilization of a portion of the personality resulting from unsuccessful completion of tasks in a developmental stage.
Fixation
Modeling actions and opinions of influential others while searching for identity, or aspiring to reach a personal, social, or occupational goal.
Identification
Separation of the emotions of a painful event or situation from the facts involved; acknowledging the facts but not the emotions.
Intellectualization
Accepting another person’s attitudes, beliefs, and values as one’s own.
Introjection
Unconscious blaming of unacceptable inclinations or thoughts on an external object.
Projection
Excusing own behavior to avoid guilt, responsibility, conflict, anxiety, or loss of self-respect.
Rationalization
Acting the opposite of what one thinks or feels.
Reaction Formation
Moving back to a previous developmental stage to feel safe or have needs met.
Regression
Excluding emotionally painful or anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings from conscious awareness.
Repression
Overt or covert antagonism toward remembering or processing anxiety-producing information.
Resistance
Exhibiting acceptable behavior to make up for a negate unacceptable behavior.
Sublimation
Substituting a socially acceptable activity for an impulse that is unacceptable.
Substitutic
Replacing the desired gratification with one that is most readily available.
Suppression
Conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts and feelings from conscious awareness.
Undoing
