attempt to make up for real or imagined weakness

Ex.  Perceived unattractive teen becomes outstanding athlete.

refuse to acknowledge a real situation

Ex. Find beast lump and not keep appointment

transfer feelings from one source to another that is considered less threatening

Ex. Boy mad at teacher and yells at dog.

emulation of admirable qualities in another to enhance one's self esteem.

Ex. Child dresses and uses mannerisms of her idol .

use of logic, reasoning and analysis to avoid unacceptable feelings

Ex. Student failing subject and complains about teacher's expectations of the subject.

internalizing or taking on values and beliefs of another person.

Ex. Child takes on values and beliefs of parents: Like Becoming your parents.

Seperation of emotion from associated thought or memory.

Ex. Man appears apathetic as discusses fire fight he participated in Vietnam.

unacceptable feelings or impulses are transfered to another.

Ex. Student fails final and blames the dog for distracting me.

eavoidance of unacceptable thoughts and behaviors by expressing opposing thoughts or behaviors.

Ex. Boy who unconsciously hates father but tells how great father is.

Withdrawing to an earlier level of development to benefit from associated comfortable levels of previous level.

Ex. Child starts sucking thumb when new baby brother come home from the hospital.

UNCONSCIOUS defense mechanism in which unacceptable ideas, impulses and memories are kept out of consciousness.

Ex. Woman can't remember sexual assault.

Transfer of painful feelings, to body parts

Ex. Woman experiences internal conflict and develops physical complaint of pain in wrist that can not be explained.

transformation of unacceptable impulses or drives into constructive or more acceptable behavior.

Ex.  Person with aggressive tendencies becones a jack hammer operator.

Conscious or voluntary inhibition of unacceptable ideas.

Ex. Child fails Algebra class and puts the event out of his/her mind.

Undoing

actually or symbolically attempting to cancel out an action that is unacceptable.

Ex. Sprinkle salt over left shoulder to prevent bad luck after spilling salt om table.

replace highly valued unattainable object with less valued object.

Ex. Strong sexual attraction to a parent marries someone who resembles that parent.

Conversion

emotional conflict is turned into physical symptom that provides some sort of benefit

Ex. Witness murder and expirences sudden blindness without organic cause.

thinking patterns that are inefective or self- destructive.

Maladaptive

Helplessness

repeated exposure to events perceived as being uncontrollable, decrease motivation, feeling of despair, anxiety, cognitive impairment, anger.

Maladaptive

Powerlessness

one's actions cannot affect an outcome; lack personal control over events or situations

-Passivity

-Nonparticipation in care and decision making

-Dependence on others leading to anger, resentment, guilt

-Verbal, expression of loss of control over situations or outcomes

-Ineffective coping mechanism

Vague feeling of impending doom resulting from a perceived threat to self; may have no clearly identified cause.

-Major component of all mental health disturbances 

Loss

involuntary seperation from self of someone or something treasured

-Acutal- it happens

-Anticipatory- sense of loss expirenced before actual loss occurs

Subjective, emotional response that evolves from a sense of loss.

-Mourning- process through which grief is faced and ultimately resolved or altered over time.

Subconscious blocking out of emotional expirences which can have positive or negative outcomes

-Minimizing the severity of an illness by patient is example of denial.