Defense Mechanism.
Across cultures, individuals have varied ways of coping. Let me define what defense mechanism is - It is a Freudian theory which states people used them in order to safeguard the mind, feelings and thoughts of thing that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind (http://psychology.about.com).
Needless to say that we all have experience some form of anxiety. I have been here and there lately, hearing this and that and I have bumped into some anxious people (at some point lately, I have been one myself). I was mentally keeping some notes in my mind of the common forms of defenses that one commits in order to cope with stressing situation and here is my list:
1. Denial - I would not define it anymore, it is self explanatory. It is the most common and most popular of all the DM's. We commit them almost instanteously the moment that's something unpleasant comes our way, lines like - I don't think what I did is wrong; I don't really like him (but the face says otherwise); I have nothing to do with what happened.
2. Rationalization - Simply put, this DM means that a person denies in a more logical way so to speak. We also refer to this mechanism as justification. Ex: I miss passing my assignment on time because I was baby sitting my younger sister; I did ace the exam because I did not study hard enough; I cheated on my boyfriend because he is not spending more time than he should; It was just a kiss, we were just drunk....excuses, excuses, excuses - although some of this excuse maybe true (I'm not sweeping generalization), others give them for the sake of justifying their actions.
3. Projection - This involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. Ex: We strongly dislike a person and instead of making the effort of knowing that person - you think right away that the person hates you (which is not at all the case ). You are simply projecting your emotion to the person and you make your self believe that he feels antagonistic towards you.
4. Reaction Formation - this defense reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling. Best way to explain this is - when a person who dislike someone strongly will treat that person with excessive kindness. We can say that this defense works in contrary with projection because in this case, to hide the dislike one treats that person nicely.
The list would be long but I think this are the common ones (although you have to tailor fit which defense mechanism to use in a certain stressful situation). To commit this defenses is not wrong, in fact it helps us to be flexible and be more adaptive to our environment. But just like anything else in this world, too much/ excessive practice of something is always detrimental. We can resort to this defenses to cope with stressing situations but one must be careful --- don't commit this too much otherwise, instead of being adaptive you become maladaptive.
Nuff said.
Across cultures, individuals have varied ways of coping. Let me define what defense mechanism is - It is a Freudian theory which states people used them in order to safeguard the mind, feelings and thoughts of thing that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind (http://psychology.about.com).
Needless to say that we all have experience some form of anxiety. I have been here and there lately, hearing this and that and I have bumped into some anxious people (at some point lately, I have been one myself). I was mentally keeping some notes in my mind of the common forms of defenses that one commits in order to cope with stressing situation and here is my list:
1. Denial - I would not define it anymore, it is self explanatory. It is the most common and most popular of all the DM's. We commit them almost instanteously the moment that's something unpleasant comes our way, lines like - I don't think what I did is wrong; I don't really like him (but the face says otherwise); I have nothing to do with what happened.
2. Rationalization - Simply put, this DM means that a person denies in a more logical way so to speak. We also refer to this mechanism as justification. Ex: I miss passing my assignment on time because I was baby sitting my younger sister; I did ace the exam because I did not study hard enough; I cheated on my boyfriend because he is not spending more time than he should; It was just a kiss, we were just drunk....excuses, excuses, excuses - although some of this excuse maybe true (I'm not sweeping generalization), others give them for the sake of justifying their actions.
3. Projection - This involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. Ex: We strongly dislike a person and instead of making the effort of knowing that person - you think right away that the person hates you (which is not at all the case ). You are simply projecting your emotion to the person and you make your self believe that he feels antagonistic towards you.
4. Reaction Formation - this defense reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling. Best way to explain this is - when a person who dislike someone strongly will treat that person with excessive kindness. We can say that this defense works in contrary with projection because in this case, to hide the dislike one treats that person nicely.
The list would be long but I think this are the common ones (although you have to tailor fit which defense mechanism to use in a certain stressful situation). To commit this defenses is not wrong, in fact it helps us to be flexible and be more adaptive to our environment. But just like anything else in this world, too much/ excessive practice of something is always detrimental. We can resort to this defenses to cope with stressing situations but one must be careful --- don't commit this too much otherwise, instead of being adaptive you become maladaptive.
Nuff said.
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