Module 13 defense mechanism

DEFENSE MECHANISM

PROF. ARNEL A. DIEGO MA.Ed.

Director, Social Sciences Department

THE ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO

Levels of Consciousness Conscious: thoughts or

motives that a person is currently aware of or is remembering

Preconscious: thoughts or motives that one can become aware of easily

Unconscious: thoughts or motives that lie beyond a person's normal awareness but that can be made available through psychoanalysis.

Freudian Theory

Structures of Personality Id

Operates according to the “pleasure principle” Ego

Operates according to the “reality” principle Superego

Contains values and ideals

Structure of personality

ID- Pleasure principle

Driven purely by needs, wants and desires, without regard for consequences (I want it and I want it now)

EGO - Reality principle

This follows what is realistic and includes all the gray areas of decision making, or the justifications for behavior

Superego – Morality

Strict adherence to the rules that govern society, everything is either black or white, right or wrong

Table 12.2 Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

ANXIETY

ANXIETY Unpleasant inner state that people seek to avoid. Anxiety acts as a

signal to the ego that things are not going right.

Freud identified three types of anxiety:

Neurotic anxiety is the unconscious worry that we will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior.

Reality anxiety is fear of real-world events. The cause of this anxiety is usually easily identified. For example, a person might fear receiving a dog bite when they are near a menacing dog. The most common way of reducing this anxiety is to avoid the threatening object.

Moral anxiety involves a fear of violating our own moral principles.

Fig. 15.3 Frustration and common reactions to it.

Reactions to frustration can be both positive and negative.

Positive reactions are realistic and reasonable ones.

Negative reactions are less realistic and reasonable, those are defensive reactions.

DEFENSE MECHANISM

DEFENSE MECHANISM

Refer to unconscious mental processes that protect the conscious person from developing anxiety

The defense mechanisms are ways and actions which people use in order to hide their incapability and failure.

REPRESSION Anxiety-evoking thoughts are

pushed into the unconscious.

“Repressed memories” are memories that have been unconsciously blocked from access or view.

Example: A woman is unable to recall that she was raped

REGRESSION

A reversion to immature patterns of behavior.

Is the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable thoughts or impulses.

Example: An adolescent who is overwhelmed with fear, anger and growing sexual impulses might become clingy and start exhibiting earlier childhood behaviors such as bedwetting.

A boss has a temper tantrum when an employee makes a mistake

Note: An adult may regress when under a great deal of stress, refusing to leave their bed and engage in normal, everyday activities.

DISPLACEMENT Substituting a less threatening object

for the original object of impulse.

Involves taking out our frustrations, feelings and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening.

Example: After parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on her little brother

DENIAL The best known defense

mechanisms.

Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something has occurred or is currently occurring.

Example: Drug addicts or alcoholics often deny that they have a problem or an employee deny that the wages he received is not fair

PROJECTION Person attributes their own

unacceptable impulses to others.

Example: A spouse may be angry at their significant other for not listening, when in fact it is the angry spouse who does not listen.

RATIONALIZATION Involves explaining an

unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true reasons for the behavior.

Example: Ian goes out of drinking the night before a big test rationalize his behavior by saying “the test isn't all that important”

SUBLIMATION Channeling of unacceptable

impulses, thoughts and emotions into more acceptable ones.

Example: For example, a person experiencing extreme anger might take up kick-boxing as a means of venting frustration or a person with strong feeling of aggression becomes a soldier

REACTION FORMATION

Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s own true feelings.

Example: a woman who is very angry with her boss and would like to quit her job may instead be overly kind and generous toward her boss and express a desire to keep working there forever.

COMPENSATION

Process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas.

For instance, when a person says, “I may not know how to cook, but I can sure do the dishes!,”

INTELLECTUALIZATION

Intellectualization is the overemphasis on thinking when confronted with an unacceptable impulse, situation or behavior without employing any emotions.

Example: a person who has just been given a terminal medical diagnosis, instead of expressing their sadness and grief, focuses instead on the details of all possible fruitless medical procedures.

IDENTIFICATION

Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group

Example: An insecure young man joins a fraternity to boost his self-esteem

GROUP ACTIVITY

Form a group with six members only… Create a scenario that shows the uses of

different defense mechanism (preparation time: 10 minutes).

Act / present it on class (3 – 5 minutes only).

CRITERIA

Content = 40pts Organization = 25pts Creativity / Acting Skills = 30pts Audience Impact = 5pts

REFERENCES

Feldman, Robert S. (2008). Understanding Psychology (5th edition). Mc Graw Hill International

Gaerlan, Josefina, Limpingco Delia & Tria Geraldine. General Psychology (5th edition). Ken Incorporated

THANK YOU

Therefore I say to you

what ever things you asked,

when you pray believed that you

received them and YOU WILL HAVE THEM..

MARK 11:24