Acting out - Answer-Emotional conflict is dealt with through actions rather than feeling
(Ex: getting in trouble to get attention when feeling neglected or Self-injury)
Compensation - Answer-enables one to make up for real deficiencies (Ex: a person who
stutters becomes a very expressive writer)
Conversion - Answer-repressed urge is expressed as a disguised body function, usually
of the sensory, voluntary nervous system (Ex: pain, convulsions, tics, blindness)
Decompensation - Answer-deterioration of existing defenses
Denial - Answer-inability to acknowledge true significance of thoughts, feelings, etc.
Devaluation - Answer-used by persons with borderline personality in which a person
attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or another
Dissociation - Answer-a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and
behaviors to occur simultaneously with others without taking responsibility for the action
Displacement - Answer-directing an impulse, wish, or feeling toward a person or
situation that is not its real object, result in a less threatening situation (Ex: man angry at
boss kicks his dog).
Idealization - Answer-overestimation of an admired aspect or attribute of another
Identification - Answer-universal mechanism where a person patterns himself after a
significant other.
Identification with the Aggressor - Answer-process of adopting the characteristics of
individuals we find threatening to feel powerful
Incorporation - Answer-An unconscious process, sometimes termed a defense
mechanism, in which the qualities of another person are taken in, or "ingested," through
physical contact, and become part of the self.
Inhibition - Answer-loss of motivation to engage in usually pleasurable activity
Introjection - Answer-loved or hated external objects are symbolically absorbed within
self
Intellectualization - Answer-where person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing
on facts and logic.
, Isolation of Affect - Answer-Unacceptable impulse, idea, or act is separated from its
original memory source, thereby removing the original emotional charge associated with
it.
Projection - Answer-attributing one's disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings, and urges to
some external object or person
Projective Identification - Answer-a form of projection utilized by persons with Borderline
Personality Disorder— unconsciously perceiving others' behavior as a reflection of
one's own identity.
Rationalization - Answer-giving believable explanation for irrational behavior
Reaction formation - Answer-person adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that
are opposites of those he or she harbors consciously or unconsciously (Ex: being
excessively sweet to mask unconscious anger)
Regression - Answer-partial or symbolic return to more infant patters of reacting or
thinking (Ex: dependency during illness)
Repression - Answer-expressed clinically by amnesia in order to banish unacceptable
ideas, fantasies, affects, or impulses from consciousness
Splitting - Answer-demonstrating an inability to reconcile negative and positive attributes
of self or others commonly associated with borderline personality disorder
Sublimation - Answer-potentially bad feelings or behaviors are diverted into socially
acceptable behaviors (Ex: a person who has angry feelings channels them into
athletics)
Substitution - Answer-Unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion, or object is replaced
by one more attainable or acceptable goal or emotion
Symbolization - Answer-In psychoanalytic theory, the process of primary process
thinking in which one thing stands for another.
Turning against Self - Answer-defense to deflect hostile aggression or other
unacceptable impulses from another to self
Undoing - Answer-a person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate
unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions (Ex: a person compulsively washing hands
to deal with obsessive thoughts).
Closed System - Answer-A system in which no matter is allowed to enter or leave
Differentiation - Answer-becoming specialized in structure and function