Defense mechanisms
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Transcript of Defense mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms
Coping stylesAutomatic psychological processes that protect the individual against anxiety and from the awareness of internal or external dangers or stressors.
Defense Mechanisms
Can be adaptive and help people to lower anxiety to achieve goals in an acceptable wayCan be maladaptive and lead to distortions in reality and self-deception
Freud: Properties of Defense Mechanisms
Major means of managing conflict and affectRelatively unconsciousDiscrete from one anotherOften the hallmarks of major psychiatric syndromesReversibleAdaptive as well as pathological.
Understanding Anxiety
A n xie ty, op era tion a lly d e fin ed
S tressP h ys ica ll
P sych o log ica lB ioch em ica l
A n xie tyA cu te
orch ron ic
E ffec tive M ed ia tiond ec reases
an xie ty
C an p rec ip ita te o rexac rb a te p sych o tic sym p tom s
U n re lieved can led toch ron ic an xie ty
In e ffe tive M ed ia tionan xie ty in c reasesd ifficu lty cop in g
E xtrem e u se o f D M
R elie f B eh avio rD efen se m ech an ism s
C op in g b eh avio rsS p ritu a l/C u ltu ra l/S oc ia l S u p p orts
Category Defense
Mature defenses SuppressionAltruismHumorSublimation
Suppression
Definition: The conscious denial of a disturbing situation or feeling. (Only conscious defense mechanism)
Example: _______________________
Altruism
Definition: Receiving gratification either vicariously or from the response to others.
Example: _______________________
Humor
Definition: Emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of a conflict or stressor through laughter or jokes.
Example: ______________________
Sublimation
Definition: Substituting constructive and socially acceptable activity for strong impulses that are not acceptable in their original form.
Example: Jane was a very aggressive person until she began to vent her hostility on the volleyball court. Now she is more relaxed.
Category Defense
Neurotic (intermediate defenses)
Intellectualization, isolationRepressionReaction-formationDisplacementSomatizationUndoingRationalization
Repression
Definition: The exclusion of unpleasant or unwanted experiences, emotions, or ideas from conscious awareness.
Example: Chris was the only witness to a terrible fire in which several people were seriously injured. Several days later, however, Chris is unable to remember much when questioned by a reporter.
Reaction-Formation
Definition: Keeping unacceptable feelings or behaviors are out of awareness by developing the opposite behavior or emotion.
Example: Jim is attracted to other men, but tells himself that he hates all homosexuals.
Displacement
Definition: The transfer of emotions associated with a particular person, object, or situation to another person, object, or situation that is nonthreatening.
Definition: ______________________
Somatization
Definition: Transforming anxiety on the unconscious level to a physical symptom that has no organic cause.
Example: _______________________
Undoing
Definition: Making up for an act or communication
Example: _______________________
Rationalization
Definition: Justifying illogical or unreasonable ideas, actions or feelings by developing acceptable explanations that satisfy the teller as well as the listener.
Example: ______________________
Category Defense
Immature defenses
Passive aggressionActing outDissociationProjection
Passive Aggression
Definition: Indirectly expressing aggression towards others by giving the appearance of compliance and making resistance, resentment, and hostility.
Example: ____________________________
Acting Out
Definition: An individual deals with emotional conflicts or stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings.
Example: _______________________
Confabultation
Definition: Filling in missing memory with information the believed to be factual
Example:_______________
Dissociation
Definition: A disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity or perceptions of the environment.
Example: _______________________
Projection
Definition: Rejects emotionally unacceptable personal features and attributes of the self to other people, objects or situations.
Example: _______________________
Category Defense
Psychotic defenses
Denial (of external reality)
Denial
Definition: Escaping unpleasant realities by ignoring their existence.
Example: _______________________