Defence Mechanisms

• The ego helps us in the form of defence mechanisms. These are unconscious and ensure the ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas.
• Repression


  Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.
• Denial


  Refusing to acknowledge some part of reality
• Displacement


  Transferring feelings from one true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.
• Positive Evaluation of Defence Mechanism

  It has intuitive appeal - this means the most people are happy to accept the possibility, that they exist
• Positive Evaluation of Defence Mechanism

  Myers (2000) found evidence that people with low trait anxiety score and high trait defensiveness, are 'repressors'. These repressors did not report any worrying health symptoms to professionals when given a questionnaire.
• Positive Evaluation of Defence Mechanism

  Brewin and Andrew conducted a meta analysis and found that between 20-60% of sexual abuse survivors had periods of their lives when they could not remember the abuse.
• Negative Evaluation of Defence Mechanism


  Lack of testability/falsifiability since defence mechanisms are unconscious process they cannot be studied directly.
• Negative Evaluation of Defence Mechanism

  Defence Mechanisms can only be only be inferred from behaviour or reported thoughts or experiences