Defense Mechanisms are defined as methods the ego uses to avoid recognizing ideas or emotions that may cause personal anxiety. In other words, it is our body’s way from hiding from emotional and physical pain. People use these methods so they do not hold quilt or pressure but many of times it adds to one’s stress level. In using these methods, there should be certain steps to take to ensure that stress does not overwhelm and consume the being. I have recently used denial, rationalization, and repression which as a result added to my stress level and could have been easily managed.
I use repression when I have an embarrassing event happen in my life. For example, I push an embarrassing story of how I fell in the bushes at school because I was laughed at. It was pushed into the unconscious part of my mind so it may be recalled in circumstances that trigger the memory. I did not realize I had repressed the memory until now when I had to recall one of my biggest embarrassing moments. It can be beneficial to stress as to the fact that I do not remember the situations, most of the times, but can be recalled when provoked; however it can be harmful when I do remember these situations and I have to go through the same emotional cycle and re-repress the memory. Repression is a useful, as to people do not face their problems and try to get rid of them, but they can be triggered and force someone to go through the same emotional cycle as the first time.
Rationalization is another big defense mechanism that I use when doing things I probably should not be doing. For example, this past weekend I started to yell at my sister. We were in an argument and yelling at each other. I did not realize I was rationalizing my behavior until after I y...
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...story so I do not get in trouble. I have learned in the past that when having a talk with my parents that seriously someone has died. I deny what happened to be strong, but generally it just tears me up even more. These two perspectives give different ideas as to why I acted certain way when these events happened.
In conclusion, people use defense mechanism to prevent from feeling emotional repercussions, but these steps hardly ever work and end up adding to a person’s stress level. I tend to use repression, rationalization, and denial the most in my life. I can be viewed as using these mechanisms through the socio-cultural and learning perspectives. The stress that accumulates by these methods should be alleviated by coming to terms with what happened and talking about it. All defense mechanisms are not always good and tend to lead to other problems later in life.
Ever since the defense mechanism of sublimation was coined by Freud in “Three Essays” (1905), the psychological community has been particularly interested further investigating the validity of this concept and reforming new theories around it. Sublimation today is described as a mature defense mechanism at which socially unacceptable impulses are transformed into socially acceptable aims. Freud referred to sublimation as a necessary component for a healthy psychological condition and as the most complete drive density. Being such a critical element of Freudian psychoanalysis, the concept has received a substantial amount of attention by the psychological community. The concept of sublimation is, at its surface, generally convincing and logical.
The Coping domain examines the extent to which individuals cope during stressful situations. Ms. M’s results indicated that she has a high tolerance for stressful situations. However, she is experiencing more stress than she can adequately tolerate, which caused her to experience some distress. Specifically, her need stated are not being adequately met and she is preoccupied on her perceived negative features. Her negative self-inspecting behaviors, then, have caused her to feel discomfort that manifests as shame and/or guilt.
False memories being created is obvious through many different ways, such as eye-witness testimonies and past experiments that were conducted, however repression is an issue that has many baffled. There seems to be little evidence on the factual basis of repressed memories, and many argue that it does not exist. The evidence for repression in laboratories is slowly emerging, but not as rapidly as the evidence for false memories. It has been hard to clinically experiment with repressed memories because most memories are unable to be examined during the actual event to corroborate stories. Experimenters are discovering new ways to eliminate this barrier by creating memories within the experiment’s initial phase. This is important for examining the creation of false memories during the study phase. This research study will explore the differences between recovered memories and false memories through research and experiments. Other terms and closely related terms will be discussed, while examining any differences, in relation to repressed memories. The possibility of decoding an actual difference between recovered memories and false memories, through biological techniques. Because false memories can be created, examining these creations in a laboratory setting can shed light on facts overlooked. Exploring these issues will also help with the development of better therapeutic techniques for therapists in dealing with memories. This can lead to an easier process for patients and therapists if they must go through the legal system in relation to an uncovered memory.
Third is Stress Reaction – For every action there is always a reaction and how individual reacts differs and lastly is the Coping responses – the coping response of individual varies and after the injustice some people do not return to their normal state leading to unforgiveness which has bad effects which can be physical or psychological and so the need for coping mechanism either by going the biblical way for divine justice from God or the offended partner may
There have been numerous research attempts to understand how individuals cope with negative life events. Freud (1993) refer to defence mechanisms and the unconscious processes individuals resort to in an attempt to address the internal conflicts they experience. Coping strategies serves as a mediator between perceived threats and their anticipated consequences (Endler and Parker, 1990). When confronted with a threat individuals resort to certain behaviour responses in order to cope with the perceived threat. More and more evidence acknowledge the important role that coping strategies play when individuals respond to perceived stressful life events.
The individual’s mind has various methods of protecting the self by identifying a scenario and applying certain defense mechanisms. This part of the mind is called the psyche, which acts as the brain’s defense mechanism when one deals with trauma or sadness. Most often, people do not even realize they are being protected by the psyche, because its job is to make one become unaware of their potential intense feelings. This feeling of unawareness is called dissociation, which Martha Stout refers to in her essay, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday.” Dissociation isolates memories so that one can function properly without letting their emotions take over. Stout explains that trauma
It is my belief and personal opinion, that even when making choices irrationally, our actions can, to some degree, be rationalized.
When taking in new information it is natural to rationalize every behavior, event or phenomenon, in order to understand that new knowledge. We want a clear, logical and reasonable explanation of why we behave like this, or think like that. However, in order to reach the goal of understanding, sometimes we make up reasons to excuse, and claim that it is the truth. In “Immune to Reality,” Daniel Gilbert believes that when we face negative situations, especially extreme negatives, we naturally build up a “psychological immune system” to protect ourselves. This system automatically organizes, then reasons in order to explain the negatives and comfort our ill feelings. This type of self-deception helps us to emotionally survive the negativity; it
Professor B. Lahey agrees “...that the ego possesses a small arsenal of defense mechanisms that are unconsciously used to cope with tension” (566). The following are nine methods identified by Freud. The first is displacement, where letting out your anger to a friend when it was meant for someone else. Secondly is sublimation's, is by putting your stressful feelings into activities like schoolwork, literature, and sports. Reading or drawing always seem to make me feel better. The third one is Projections, putting their feelings of desire or emotions onto someone else. After that is reaction, by conflict motives or feelings are avoided by doing the opposite. Then after that is regression, reducing stress by hiding behind earlier patterns of behavior like stomping and throwing tantrums when a setback has been suffered. Then there is rationalization, reducing stress by thinking logically and explaining to oneself “this happened for a reason”. Another is repression, Avoiding things that would make oneself stressful without knowing it. Another one is Denial, consciously denying one's feelings or desire even when facts are shown. Lastly is intellectualization, looking at the other way around instead of facing
"Tell Theresa you're sick," she would advise. And generally I did. But I didn't seem blessed with her lack of conscience. On many painful occasions Theresa would find out that I really went to Sue's house without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than it is to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my mother had never learned that lesson.
Defense mechanism are a critical part of ego psychology. Used as a way to make reality a little less frightening, defense mechanism can be moderately adaptive, or damaging (Day, 2008). In order to...
... mechanisms are denial, displacement, and rationalization. Denial is refusing to believe or perceive something that took place. Displacement is directing anger from the main target to a secondary target. Rationalization is trying to justify the actions someone did by making up a plausible excuse. (http://www.clinicalsolutions.org/Welcome.html), ((Sharon Heller Freud A to Z), and (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html)
Parents go through a wave of emotions when losing a child. They are not only in disbelief and denial, but also feel angry and guilty. Some parents find themselves wanting to talk about it, while others find it easier to talk about the death of friends or other family members rather than their child’s. When a child dies this disrupts the parent’s health and well-being during the hardest phase of bereavement and for long periods over the course of their lives (Hong, Floyd & Seltzer, 2010).
During this response certain hormones are released, which speed the heart rate, slow digestion, and reroute blood flow, in order to elicit the desired response of fight or flight. The behavioral response to stress involves coping. “Coping refers to active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, pp.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Stressors initiate a response within the organism and causes changes in the body, specifically responses in the body’s autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic autonomic nervous system helps the body deal with the stress it encounters, initiating the ‘fight or flight’ response. Once the threat has passed, the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system will take over, relaxing the body. There is a balance between these two in a healthy person. However, when someone stays on guard, using the sympathetic autonomic nervous system, all sorts of physical effects can