5- Defense Mechanisms.pdf about defense mechanism

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1. Coping Mechanisms
Dr. ShrooqM. Yacoub

2. Introduction
Coping Mechanisms (also called defense
mechanisms, which may be labeled as
healthy or unhealthy
Definition: psychological techniques that the
personality develops to manage anxiety,
aggression, hostility, etc
-Used by both mentally healthy & ill -
individuals .
-May be used consciously, but are usually
unconscious

3. Types of Coping
Mechanisms
1-Repression:
What you do:
•Keep painful thoughts and feelings away from
consciousness.
•Don’t think about it!
Examples:
•Early abuse
•Painful memories
•Example: A man is unable to recall a car
accident he was in last week in which his
brother was killed.

4. 2-Denial
•Ego feels anxiety from
perception of strong external
or internal danger it can’t
escape or deal with directly
What you do:
•Tell yourself it is not
happening
Example: Mother refuses
to believe her child has
been diagnosed with
leukemia. "She just has
the flu."

5. 3-Displacement
What you do:
•Direct the feeling
away from its actual
target to another,
safer target
•Example: Adolescent
strokes out at parents
after not being invited
to party.

6. 4-Projection
What you do:
•Attribute undesirable impulses, feeling, or
desires to another person
Examples:
•“I hate her” really means “I think she hates
me”
Example: Woman who is jealous of
another woman's wealth accuses her of
being a gold-digger.

7. 5-Reaction-Formation
What you do:
•In defense against the threatening
impulse, express the opposite impulse.
•Expressing unacceptable wishes or
behavior by opposite overt behavior
Examples:
•Someone frightens you so you act super
nice
•Someone frightens you so you rejection
them
•The sex offender becomes the great
protector of society.

8. 6-Rationalization
What you do:
•Make up excuses for inadequacies,
failure, or loss
•-justifying behaviors, emotions,
motives, considered intolerable
through acceptableexcuses.
Examples:
•If I had wanted to try hard, I could
have done it too.
•If I had better teachers, I would
have gotten higher grades.
"I didn't get chosen for the team
because the coach plays
favorites.“

9. 7-Compensation
What you do:
•Extra effort in one area to offset real or
imagined lack in another area.
•Develop or strengthen positive traits to make up
for limitations
•Distract attention from the weaknesses
Examples:
•Weak in school, excellent in sports:
•Short man becomes assertively
verbal and excels in business.
.

10. 8-Regression
What you do:
•Revert back to behavior of an
earlier stage
•Use childhood coping
mechanisms
Examples:
•Temper tantrums, swearing,
fighting, crying
Problems:
•Does not solve the problem
•People think you are immature
•not learning to cope well

11. 9-Fantasy
What you do:
•Dreaming, imagining instead of living in the present world,
because you don’t feel competent to achieve.
•Pretending
•a conscious distortion of unconscious wishes and
need to obtain satisfaction.
Examples:
•Wanting to look good and pretending to yourself that you
are one of the movie stars you read about.
•Making up stories about how successful you are, rather
than working on your success.
Problems:
•You get stuck in the fantasy rather than
using your talents to become successful.

12. Continuous:
10-Identification -subconsciously attributing to
oneself qualities of others.
Example: A girl dresses like her favorite female teacher.
11-Intellectualization -use of thinking, ideas, or
intellect to avoid emotions.
Example: Parent becomes extremely knowledgeable
about child's diabetes.
12-Sublimation -diversion of unacceptable instinctual
drives into personally and socially acceptable areas.
Example: An unmarried woman who desires children
becomes a grammar school teacher