Psych: Conditioning and Ego Defenses

Question 1

• Expressing unacceptable feelings and thoughts through actions.
• Tantrums

Answer 1

Acting Out

Question 2

• Temporary, Drastic change in Personality, Memory, Consciousness, or Motor Behavior to Avoid emotional stress
• Extreme forms can result in Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)

Answer 2

Dissociation

Question 3

• Avoiding the awareness of some painful reality
• A common reaction in newly diagnosed AIDS and Cancer pts.

Answer 3

Denial

Question 4

• Transferring avoided Ideas and Feelings to some Neutral person or Object (vs. Projection)
• Mother yells at her child, because her husband yelled at her

Answer 4

Displacement

Question 5

• Partially remaining at a more Childish level of Development (vs. regression)
• Men fixating on Sports games
• Behaving like a child when they are around their Mother

Answer 5

Fixation

Question 6

• Modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful (though not necessarily admired)
• Abused child identifies w/ an Abuser and then adopts those behaviors

Answer 6

Identification

Question 7

• Separating feelings from Ideas and Events
• Describing murder in Graphic detail w/ NO emotional response

Answer 7

Isolation (of affect)

Question 8

• Attributing an unacceptable Internal Impulse to an External source (vs. Displacement)
• A man who wants another woman thinks his wife is cheating on him

Answer 8

Projection

Question 9

• Proclaiming logical reasons for actions actually performed for other reasons, usually to avoid self-blame
• After getting fired, claiming that the job was not important anyway

Answer 9

Rationalization

Question 10

• Replacing a warded-off idea or feeling by an (unconsciously derived) emphasis on its opposite (vs. Sublimation)
• A patient w/ libidinous thoughts enters a Monastery

Answer 10

Reaction Formation

Question 11

• Turning back the Maturational Clock and going back to Earlier Modes of Dealing w/ the World (vs. Fixation)
• Seen in Children under stress such as illness, punishment, or birth of a new sibling (bedwetting in previously toilet-trained child when hospitilized)

Answer 11

Regression

Question 12

• Involuntary withholding an Idea or Feeling from conscious awareness (vs. Suppression)
• Not remembering a Conflictual or Traumatic Experience; Pressing Bad Thoughts into the Unconscious

Answer 12

Repression

Question 13

• Believing that people are either ALL GOOD or ALL BAD at different times due to intolerance of ambiguity
• Commonly seen in Borderline Personality Disorder.
• A patient says that all the nurses are cold and insensitive but that the doctors are warm and friendly

Answer 13

Splitting

Question 14

• Alleviating guilty feeling by unsolicited generosity toward others
• Mafia boss makes large donation to charity

Answer 14

Altruism

Question 15

• Appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking or adverse situation
• Nervous medical student jokes about the boards

Answer 15

Humor

Question 16

• Replacing an unacceptable wish w/ a course of action that is similar to the wish but does not conflict w/ one’s value system (vs. Reaction Formation)
• Teenager’s aggression toward his Father is Redirected to perform well in sports

Answer 16

Sublimation

Question 17

• Intentional withholding of an Idea or Feeling from Conscious Awareness (vs. Repression)
• Choosing to not worry about the Big Game until it is time to play

Answer 17

Suppression

Question 18

• Patient projects feeling about Formative or other important persons onto the Physician
• Psychiatrist is seen as the patient

Answer 18

Transference

Question 19

• Doctor projects feelings about Formative or other important persons onto patient
• Patient reminds Physician of Younger Sibling

Answer 19

Countertransference

Question 20

• Learning in which a natural response (salvation) is elicited by a conditioned, learned, stimulus (bell) that previously was presented in conjunction w/ an unconditioned stimulus (food)
• Usually deals w/ Involuntary responses
• Pavlov’s classical experiments w/ dogs - ringing the bells provoked salivation

Answer 20

Classical Conditioning

Question 21

• Learning in which a particular action is elicited because it produces a punishment or reward
• Usually deals w/ Voluntary responses

Answer 21

Operant Conditioning

Question 22

• Desired reward produces action (mouse presses button to get food)

Answer 22

Positive Reinforcement

Question 23

• Target behavior (response) is followed by removal of Aversive stimulus (mouse presses button to turn off continuous loud noise)

Answer 23

Negative Reinforcement

Question 24

• Repeated application of Aversive stimulus extinguishes unwanted behavior

Answer 24

Punishment

Question 25

• Discontinuation of Reinforcement (positive or negative) eventually eliminates behavior
• Can occur in Operant or Classical Conditioning

Answer 25

Extinction