Personality DOs Flashcards
Which defense mechanism:
A woman who steals accuses her sister of stealing but has no proof
Projection (primitive)
Gross delusions about external reality
Which defense mechanism:
A person who has lost millions says, “We are the richest people ever!” and goes to show their bank account.
Denial (primitive)
Refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening
Which defense mechanism:
Your fellow classmate explains how his professor is the best at the university but all his other professors know nothing and are incompetent
Splitting (primitive)
Seeing some people as all good and others as all bad.
Which defense mechanism:
On his way to work Bob is cut off in traffic. Still angry he goes to the office and yells at his secretary.
Displacement (neurotic)
Shift of emotion from real object and redirection of emotion towards something/someone else
Which defense mechanism:
With tax season beginning, accountant Roberta, begins watching cartoons from her childhood during breaks as a destressor.
Regression (neuotic)
Temporary reversion of behavior to earlier, less mature/child-like behavior
Which defense mechanism:
A person with low self esteem drops his coffee down his shirt in front of the entire office. The next day upon arriving to work, he develops a migraine and abdominal pain walking to his desk.
Somatization/hypochondriasis (neurotic)
Transforming negative feelings towards others into negative feelings toward self, pain, illness, anxiety
Which defense mechanism:
Shelby, a middle school girl, has started sitting with the “popular girls” at her school. Soon enough she has changed her wardrobe and hairstyle to match the others.
Her friend Megan, who was bullied by the girls, has now started pushing her little brother around and bulling him.
Introjection/Identification (neurotic)
Opposite of projection, a person aware will imitate. A person unaware will use it as a defense
Which defense mechanism:
A police officer informs his fellow officers about a horrific accident with lack of emotion and indifference.
Isolation of affect (neurotic)
Separating feelings from ideas and events
Which defense mechanism:
A med student cuts their hand deeply. The anxious anatomy fellow proceeds to recite the clotting cascade pathway.
Intellectualization (neurotic)
Focus on and exaggeration of one aspect of the situation to distance on from anxiety
Which defense mechanism:
A person stops mid conversation walking down the street with her friend.
Blocking (neurotic)
Temporarily inhibits thinking
Which defense mechanism:
A teacher notices a docile school boy begins to pick fights with other kids on the playground after learning his mom was just diagnosed with cancer.
Acting out (neurotic)
Covering up true feelings by discharging a different feeling
Which defense mechanism:
A little girl picks on and makes fun of the boy she likes from school.
A parent who has an unplanned pregnancy overly showers the kid in love and affection to cope with the feelings of not wanting the child
Reaction Formation (neurotic)
Converting unconscious wishes/impulses into opposite
Which defense mechanism:
A person knocks the salt over and proceeds to throw a pinch over their shoulder.
A person cheats on their partner but buys them a gift to make up for their actions
Undoing (neurotic)
Doing an action hoping to fix/reverse a previous unacceptable behavior
Which defense mechanism:
A person explains that yes they spent half their paycheck on frivolous items, but they were all on sale, they will use them all the time and they have considered getting all these things before they were on sale.
Rationalization (neurotic)
Justification of behavior. Convinces themself that no wrong occurred and the unacceptable behavior is acceptable
Which defense mechanism:
Bob “accidentally” cuts down the neighbors prized rose bush after the neighbors dog continuously poops in Bob’s yard
Passive aggressive (neurotic)
