Repression.

Blocking a threatening idea, memory, or emotion from consciousne

ss.
Reaction formation. Transforming anxiety-producing thoughts into their oppos
ites in consciousness.
Regression. Returning to more primitive levels of behavior in defense agains
t anxiety or frustration.
Rationalization. Justifying one s behavior or failures by plausible or sociall
y acceptable reasons in place of the real reason.
Denial. Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happening, or that a
taboo emotion in being experienced. Note: Denial distorts the way you perceive e
vents ( I am NOT angry at you ) repression blocks or distorts your memory of events
(the so-called repressed memories in which a person was molested but up to this po
int had no memory of it).
Displacement. Discharging pent-up feelings, usually of hostility, on objects
less dangerous than those that initially aroused the emotion.
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Examples of Rationalization (taken from an Instructor s Manual for Intro Psych, bu
t I forget which book):
After Carla rejected him, Phil told his friends that he didn t think she was v
ery attractive and interesting, and that he really wasn t all that crazy about her
.
Jack told his parents that he got a C in his psychology course because all t
he As and Bs went to students who cheated on tests and had professionals write t
heir papers.
Bill said that the reason he flunked out of college was because of the poor
quality of teaching there.
Examples of Reaction Formation:
George feels that his younger son, Gary, is unattractive and not very smart.
He accuses his wife of picking on Gary and favoring their other son.
Lucy dresses in provocative clothes and uses suggestive language although sh
e fears that she is unattractive and she really isn t very interested in sex.
John has a lot of unconscious hostility toward his father but he acts very a
ffectionate toward him and tells other people that he and his father have a wond
erful relationship.
Examples of Regression:
After Sue Ann s baby brother was born, she began to talk baby-talk and suck he
r thumb.
Mary was homesick and anxious when she moved into the dormitory and started
her first year in college. She began to sleep with her favorite teddy bear again
.
Examples of Denial
Sixteen-year-old Tom had started using drugs, and the changes in his behavio

r made it pretty obvious, but Tom s parents didn t believe the school principal when
she called to talk with them about the problem.
Bill, who is 50 years old wears clothes that you would see on teenagers and
drives a sports car. He can t see that he doesn t look 30, or even 40, anymore.
Shakespeare: The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.
From Academic Earth: This lecture introduces students to the theories of Sig
mund Freud, including a brief biographical description and his contributions to
the field of psychology. The limitations of his theories of psychoanalysis are c
overed in detail, as well as the ways in which his conception of the unconscious
mind still operate in mainstream psychology today.
Read more: http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/02/episode-5-in-defense-of-defensemechanisms/#ixzz3Kz9xigad