Psychology:Defense Mechanisms

Psychology: Defense Mechanism

When coping fails, the individual may resort to behavior patterns that protect an individual from pain, shame, or guilt (Papalia, 1988).

This can be helpful to the individual cope with some frustrating problems however it should not be overemphasized so that it will not interfere with the effectiveness in daily life. Defense-oriented coping strategies do not reduce stressors; however, they help people protect themselves from their effects.

These strategies ease stress, thereby enabling people to tolerate and deal with disturbances, (Smith, 2003)

Repression:

This is an unconscious withdrawal of painful experiences from the mind.

Ex. Because students do not want to research in the library, they have the tendency to forget assignments given by their teachers.

Fantasy:

Here the individual tries to seek escape in a dream world of his own creation. Severe frustration may result in a compete escape into fantasy that might result in the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality.

Projection:

It is attributing to somebody else one's own inadequacy.

Because of overwhelming personal undesirable motives, he opts to assign this to others just to feel less accountable of his own negative desires and motives (Papalia, 1988).

Identification:

Here the individual tries to identify himself with whose attributes and qualities he admires. Here, he becomes the other person that compensate His inadequacy.

Reaction Formation:

Here the person tends to manifest the opposite of what he actually feels. He has the intension of concealing the real desires and motives in order for her to look better even if inside the feeling is negative.

Rationalization:

The process of justifying one's conduct by offering plausible or socially acceptable reasons in place of real reasons.

a.)    Sour Grapes- It means pretending to dislike what one really likes.

b.) Sweet Lemon- pretending to like one really dislikes.

Substitution or compensation:

Here, the individual tries to replace socially disapproved activities or goals with socially acceptable ones.

Ex. Maria who is not very good in her class tries to excel in dancing

Intellectualization:

Here a person gains detachment from a threatening event in order to remain untouched by it emotionally.

Withdrawal or escape:

Here, the individual manifests rebellion against the existing rules. This form is called negativism. Somebody who tries to evade from the conditions and situations, which caused her pains, may also show escape from the conditions.

Summary- Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create personality. Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives.Everyone experiences stress to some degree.