15C Psychiatry - Fear, Anxiety, Stress, & Defense Mechanisms

Flashcards on Fear, Anxiety, Stress, & Defense Mechanisms

Anxiety

The tendency of the mental apparatus to react to an influx of stimuli by developing anxiety. Essential in normal development and persists throughout life.

Signal Anxiety

Learning about anxiety that allows the ego to operate and deal with a situation. Leads to ego sets or skills applied later in life.

Stressor

Anything – person, place, event that is real, symbolic or imagined; perceived as stressful and threatens individual’s survival; causes stress/anxiety. Can be pleasant or unpleasant.

Defense Mechanisms

Coping mechanisms to help avoid or minimize anxiety; a self-regulatory process in response to dangerous or threat situation (real or imagined).

Denial

Avoidance of awareness of a painful aspect of reality; consciously or unconsciously understanding the meaning and implication of what is perceived or experienced.

Distortion

A person grossly reshapes external reality to fit their inner needs. Examples include hallucinations, megalomania, delusions of entitlement or superiority.

Projection

Perceiving and reacting to unacceptable inner impulse and sends it out as if it were coming from the external world.

Projective Identification

Intolerable or unwanted aspect of the self is deposited to another person; the projector tries to coerce the other person into identifying with what has been projected, or play the projected role.

Splitting

Self or others are viewed as either good or bad, never in between. Abruptly shifting between either extreme.

Primitive Idealization

Occurs after splitting; people are viewed as either all good, and the person is idealized, while the bad person is greatly devalued and endowed with great power or badness.

Acting Out

Direct expression of unconscious wish/impulse through action to avoid being aware of the accompanying effect. Examples include sexual promiscuity and rebelliousness vs. authority.

Blocking

Temporary inhibition of a person’s thoughts, affect, or impulse. Examples include depression and schizophrenia.

Regression

Return to an earlier mode of dealing with extreme reality. Example: A full grown adult regresses into a child or an infant-like state.

Introjection

Internalization of an object where person and object are one to avoid painful awareness of separation.

Identification with Aggressor

The internalization of feared object’s aggressive characteristics.

Passive Aggressive Behavior

Express aggression to others indirectly through passivity, masochism, turning vs self. Examples include procrastination, feigning illness, and excusing failures.

Somatization

A person’s unconscious thoughts, worries, or anxieties (psychic derivatives) are converted into bodily signs and symptoms.

Hypochondriasis

Exaggerating illness as form of evasion, regression, and self-reproach.

Schizoid Fantasy

Autistic retreat to resolve conflict and gain gratification. Interpersonal intimacy is avoided and eccentricity serves to repel others.

Controlling

Attempt to manage or regulate events or people to minimize anxiety and resolve inner conflicts.

Displacement

Purposeful or uncontrollable shifting of ideas or feelings from one object to another.

Externalization

Tendency to perceive in external object or world one’s own impulse, mood, attitudes, thoughts, and personality.

Inhibition

Consciously limiting some ego functions to avoid anxiety arising from conflict with id, superego, and external reality.

Intellectualization

Control affect or impulse by thinking about them instead of experiencing them.

Rationalization

Offering reasonable explanations to justify unacceptable attitude, belief, and/or behavior.

Isolation

Separating idea from its affect by repression of idea or displacement of affect to substitute idea.

Dissociation

Temporary drastic modification of a person’s character or id. Examples include fugue, trance, ecstasy, and hypnosis.

Repression

Expel an idea or feeling from one’s consciousness (primary or secondary).

Sexualization

Endowing object or function with sexual significance that is originally not sexual.

Reaction Formation

Unacceptable impulse transformed into its opposite.

Undoing

Symbolically does the reverse of something unacceptable to make up for or amend previous wrongdoing. Form of magical expiatory action.

Altruism

Vicarious constructive and instinctually gratifying service to others.

Anticipation

Realistically planning for future inner discomfort.

Sublimation

Gratification of impulses through more acceptable channels.

Suppression

Consciously postponing attention to impulse/conflict.

Asceticism

Eliminating pleasurable effects of experiences. Gratification gained from renunciation of all base pleasures is what provides relief to the person.

Humor

Overt expression of feelings or thoughts through comedy without personal discomfort nor producing unpleasant effect on others.