Ego defenses Flashcards
Unacceptable feelings and thoughts are expressed through actions
Acting out, immature
Temporary, drastic changes in personality, memory, consciousness, or motor behavior to avoid emotional stress
Dissociation, immature
Extreme forms can result in dissociative identity disorder
Avoidance of awareness of some painful reality
Denial, immature
Process whereby avoided ideas and feelings are transferred to some neutral person or object
Displacement, immature
Partially remaining at a more childish level of development
Fixation, immature
Modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful, but not necessarily admired
Identification, immature
Separation of feelings from ideas and events
Isolation (of affect), immature
An unacceptable internal impulse is attributed to an external source
Projection, immature
Proclaiming logical reasons for actions actually performed for other reasons, usually to avoid self-blame
Rationalization, immature
Process whereby a warded-off idea or feeling is replaced by an (unconsciously derived) emphasis on its opposite
Reaction formation, immature
Turning back the maturational clock and going back to earlier modes of dealing with the world
Regression, immature
Involuntary withholding of idea or feeling from conscious awareness
Repression, immature
Belief that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to intolerance of ambiguity. Seen in borderline personality disorder.
Splitting
Guilty feelings alleviated by unsolicited generosity toward others
Altruism, mature
Appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking or adverse situation
Humor, mature
