Ego Defense Mechanisms

• Defense Mechanisms 


  Unconscious methods of attempting to defend self from anxiety and relieve emotional conflict.
• Sublimation 


  Replacement of an acceptable need, attitude, or emotion with one more socially acceptable.
• Reaction-formation 


  An action or an expression of an attitude that is directly opposite to the individual's unacceptable impulses (acting the opposite of what one thinks or feels)
• Undoing


  Engaging in a behavior that is considered to be the opposite of a previous unacceptable behavior, thoughts, or feelings
• Suppression 


  Intentional or conscious exclusion of a painful thought, impulse, or memory.
• Repression 


  Involuntary exclusion of a painful thought, impulse, or memory from awareness.
• Compensation 


  Putting extra effort to achieve in areas in which one has a real or imagined deficiency.
• Projection


  Attributing or blaming one's unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or impulses into someone else.
• Introjection 


  Taking into one's personality the characteristics of another.
• Intellectualization 


  Excessive reasoning to avoid uncomfortable or distressing emotions; the thinking is disconnected from emotions, and situations are health with at a cognitive level.
• Denial 


  Disowning consciously intolerable thoughts and impulses.
• Rationalization 


  Offering a socially acceptable or a logical explanation for an act produced by unconscious impulses.
• Regression


  Resorting to an old, usually immature behavior to ventilate a feeling
• Fixation 


  Never advancing to the next level of emotional development and organization; the persistence in later life of interests and behavior patterns appropriate to an earlier age.
• Displacement 


  Shifting a negative feeling or emotion away from the real object to a less threatening target.
• Conversion 


  The expression of emotional conflicts through physical symptoms.
• Fantasy 


  Gratification by imaginary achievements and wishful thinking
• Identification 


  Modeling actions and opinions of influential others, while searching for identity, or aspiring to reach a personal, social, or occupational goal.
• Regression 


  Common in dementia, schizophrenia
• Denial 


  Common in alcoholic
• Projection 


  Common in Paranoid Disorders
• Reaction Formation 


  Common in Bipolar Disorder
• Undoing


  Common in OCD
• Dissociation 


  Unconscious forgetting with disintegration of personality, consciousness, memory, identity, and emotion.
• Displacement 


  Common in phobia
• Rationalization


  Distortion of facts, unjustifiable excuse; common in antisocial behavior
• Sublimation 


  A woman whose husband is working overseas pursues her graduate studies.
• Sublimation 


  Person who has quit smoking sucks on hard candy when the urge to smoke arises.
• Sublimation 


  Being upset with your spouse but going for a walk instead of fighting.
• Reaction Formation 


  A person with a strong antisocial impulse leads a crusade against vice.
• Reaction Formation 


  Person who despises her boss tells everyone what a great boss she is.
• Reaction Formation 


  Being sad about a recent breakup, but acting happy about it.
• Undoing


  A person who cheats on a spouse brings the spouse a bouquet of roses.
• Undoing


  A man who is ruthless in business donates large amounts of money to charity.
• Suppression 


  Trying to forget something that causes anxiety to the individual.
• Suppression 


  A student decides not to think about a parent's illness in order to study for a test.
• Suppression 


  Being abused as a child but choosing to push it out of your mind.
• Repression 


  Forgetting sexual abuse during childhood that was committed on a person.
• Compensation 


  A youth with physical disability becomes academically excellent.
• Compensation 


  Napoleon complex: diminutive woman becoming a Prime Minister