Defense Mechanisms 1
Repression
Unconsciously blocking out painful or unacceptable thoughts and feelings, preventing them from entering consciousness
Example: A trauma survivor may have no memory of a distressing childhood event.
Regression
Reverting to behaviors or emotions from an earlier stage of development when feeling threatened or under stress.
Example: A child who feels insecure might start sucking their thumb again, a behavior from infancy.
A therapist who refers to "say whatever comes to mind is practicing
Free Association
a feeling of inadequacy due to a real or imagined physical deficiency in a particular body part
Ex: a person with a speech impediment might become a great orator
Organ Inferiority
Considered the first psychoanalytic patient
Anna O
Projection
Attributing one's own undesirable thoughts, feelings, or motives to someone else.
Example: A person who has thought about cheating on their partner may accuse their partner of being unfaithful.
Reaction Formation
Behaving or expressing feelings that are the opposite of one's true, anxiety-provoking impulses.
Example: Someone who has unconscious hostile feelings towards a colleague might act overly friendly towards them.
Talking about difficulties in order to purge emotions is a curative process known as
Catharsis or Abreaction
When a new stimulus is paired with the conditioned stimulus and the new stimulus takes on the power of the CS, this is called
Higher-order conditioning (a light replacing a bell as the stimulus for Pavlov's dog)
Psychodynamic exploration of phobias in children
Little Hans (Freud)
Denial
Refusing to accept or acknowledge a distressing reality or truth to protect oneself from anxiety.
Example: A person with a serious illness might refuse to accept the diagnosis or continue to act as if they are healthy
Sublimation
Channeling unacceptable impulses or energy into more socially acceptable and constructive outlets.
Example: A person with aggressive impulses might channel that energy into playing sports or engaging in competitive sports.
Suppression differs from repression in that
Repression is automatic or involuntary
What is Grandma's Rule?
A lower probability behavior is reinforced by a higher probability behavior.
(If you eat your veggies (low prob) I will let you have dessert (high prob)).
Behavioristic explanation of phobias in children
Little Albert (John B Watson)
Displacement
Redirecting an emotional response (often anger) from its intended, often threatening, target to a safer, more acceptable one.
Example: After a frustrating day at work, someone might yell at their family members instead of their boss
Intellectualization
Focusing on the intellectual or abstract aspects of a situation rather than its emotional or personal impact.
Example: After a breakup, a person might analyze the event from a purely logical standpoint, avoiding their own feelings of grief or sadness.
When a child accepts a parent's or significant other's values as his or her own
Introjection
REBT ABC theory of personality
activating event, belief system, emotional consequence
The first studies that demonstrated that animals could be conditioned to control bodily functions (heart rate, intestines) was done by
Neal Miller
Rationalization
Creating logical-sounding, often self-serving, explanations for behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are actually rooted in unconscious motives.
Example: Someone who was rejected from a job might tell themselves they didn't really want it anyway, or that the interviewer was biased
Compensation
a person overachieves or emphasizes strengths in one area to make up for a perceived or actual weakness, fear, or deficiency in another
Example: Someone who is failing school may fixate on their athletic ability
_____ a person underrates a reward, vs. when a person _____ or overrates a reward
Sour grapes vs. sweet lemon rationalization
____schedules are more effective than ___ schedules.
____ schedules are more effective than ____ schedules
Variable schedules, fixed schedules
Ratio schedules, interval schedules
Most effective (VR,VI,FR,FI) Least effective
Little Peter experiments (deconditioning a phobia in children)
Mary Cover Jones