Ch. 1 Psychological Stress and Ego Defense Mechanisms

Mild Anxiety 

• norm response

• heightens awareness

• increased productivity 

• PT STILL TEACHABLE

Moderate Anxiety

• perceptual field diminishes (i can see whole room but now i can only see the middle of the room)

• attention span dec. 

• inc. restlessness

• need help with solving problems 

Severe Anxiety

• perceptual field GREATLY diminished

• attention span limited

• physical and emotional symptoms (SOB)

• difficult to teach 

Panic Level Anxiety

• cannot focus at all

• unteachable

• can lead to psychosis

Compensation

focus on strength to make up for weakness

Denial

refuse to accept reality

displacement

taking negative emotions and focusing on an innocent target

identification

adapting beliefs and behaviors of another person

intellectualization

looking at things from logic and separating emotions

undoing

trying to reverse and cancel something bad that they did (think youtuber apology videos)

projection

putting your flaws and insecurities onto others (doesn’t have to be innocent target)

rationalization

justifying behavior to make it seem okay

reaction formation

expressing opposite feelings from what they really feel abt it

• think good but express bad 

• think bad but express good (fake)

regression

reverting to previous response to a stressor 

respression

SUBCONSCIOUS blocking of unwanted thoughts and feelings

supression

CONSCIOUS blocking of unwanted thoughts and feelings

sublimation

taking unacceptable thoughts and channeling that energy into another output