Question

Repression: Blocking a threatening idea, memory, or emotion from consciousness.

Projection: Attributing one’s own unacceptable feelings and impulses to someone else.

Displacement: Directing one’s emotions, especially anger, toward things, animals, or other people that are not the real object of one’s feelings.

Sublimation: A special case of displacement in which the displacement of emotions serves a higher cultural or socially useful purpose, as in creation of art or inventions.

Reaction formation: Transforming anxiety-producing thoughts or feelings into their opposites in consciousness.

Regression: Returning to more primitive levels of behavior in defense against anxiety or frustration.

Denial: Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happening, or that a taboo emotion is being experienced. Denial blocks or distorts perception; repression blocks or distorts memory.

Directions:

Identify the defense mechanism being used in the following statements. Explain your answer underneath each statement in (2-3) detailed sentences.

13.         Patricia has a lot of  anger at the way her verbally and physically abusive father treated her during her childhood. She has never confronted him about this. However, she has written a best-selling novel in which parent-child conflict is a major theme.    ___________________

14.          John has a lot of unconscious hostility toward his father, but he is outwardly very affectionate toward him and tells other people that he and his father have a wonderful relationship. _________________

15.          Kay takes advantage of other people when she thinks she can get away with it. People rarely take advantage of Kay because it is her belief that others will cheat you if they can, and she makes it her business to see that they don’t get an opportunity. _______________

16.          Most people who know Jonathan know that he is gay. However, his mother stopped speaking to her best friend because the friend told her that “parents should recognize and accept homosexuality in their children.” _______________