Theme: Defence mechanisms
| A. | Denial |
| B. | Repression |
| C. | Reaction formation |
| D. | Displacement |
| E. | Undoing |
| F. | Intellectualisation |
| G. | Isolation |
| H. | Sublimation |
| I. | Supression |
| J. | Splitting |
Select the defense mechanism suggested by each of the scenarios
| NaN. | The defense mechanism most associated with Melanie Klein. |
| Splitting 79% Exam Question Jul 2014 Melanie Klein is usually credited with the defense mechanisms of splitting and projective identification |
| NaN. | The defense mechanism involved when a person unconsciously blocks a thought, feeling, or emotion. |
| Repression 73% Exam Question Jul 2014 |
| NaN. | The defense mechanism involved when a person consciously forces unwanted information out of their awareness. |
| Sublimation The correct answer is: Supression 67% Exam Question Jul 2014 Suppression is a conscious form of repression. |
Defense mechanisms
| Defense mechanism | Description |
|---|---|
| Denial | Refusal to accept reality |
| Displacement | Redirection of impulses onto a different target (usually less threatening one) to the one who caused the emotion |
| Projection | Involves dealing with stress by falsely attributing your own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts to another person |
| Projective identification | In projective identification aspects of the ego are projected into another (as in projection). The difference between the two is that projective identification takes into account the emotional impact of the recipient who feels what is projected into them. In projective identification there is often a sense of feeling controlled or manipulated |
| Reaction formation | Dealing with stress by substituting behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are the exact opposite of your own unacceptable thoughts or feelings |
| Suppression | Process of consciously avoiding thinking about something for example by distracting oneself |
| Repression | Involves dealing with stress by removing disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from conscious awareness. The person may still be aware of the feelings associated with the repressed issue, but will not know where the feelings come from |
| Undoing | Involves dealing with stress by using words or behaviors designed to negate or make amends symbolically for unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions |
| Acting out | Acting in a way that enables a person to avoid coming into contact with difficult feelings or anxieties. Examples include drug use, missed appointments with therapists, and tantrums. Note that acting out is not akin to acting up which is a term used to describe a range of challenging behaviors |
| Intellectualisation | Focusing on details in an effort to avoid painful thoughts or emotions |
| Rationalization | The creation of false but credible justifications. This is easily confused with intellectualisation but in the latter the patient is not in contact with their emotions. In rationalisation the patient feels the distress but seeks to find alternative reasons for them to avoid the full reality of the situation |
| Sublimation | Involves dealing with stress by channeling potentially disruptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behavior |
| Regression | Reverting back to an earlier stage of development when faced with an unpleasant thought or emotion |
| Isolation | The disconnection of an event from the emotion attached to it |
| Splitting | Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by compartmentalizing opposite affect states and failing to integrate the positive and negative qualities of the self or others into cohesive images. Because ambivalent affects cannot be experienced simultaneously, more balanced views and expectations of self or others are excluded from emotional awareness. Self and object images tend to alternate between polar opposites: exclusively loving, powerful, worthy, nurturing, and kind or exclusively bad, hateful, angry, destructive, rejecting, or worthless |
| Externalisation | Projecting into the external world and in external objects elements of one's own personality, including instinctual impulses, conflicts, moods, attitudes, and styles of thinking. Externalization is a more general term than projection |
