Coping Mechanisms

and
Defense Mechanisms
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Coping Mechanisms
Coping mechanisms are the sum total of ways in which people deal with
minor to major stress and trauma while helping them maintain their
emotional well-being. Coping Mechanism is therefore an adaptation to
environmental stress that is based on conscious or unconscious choice
and that enhances control over behavior or gives psychological comfort.
Not all ways of coping are equally beneficial and some can actually be very
detrimental.
People may use coping mechanisms for stress management or to cope with
anger, loneliness, anxiety, or depression.
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms mostly occur at an unconscious level,
and people are generally unaware they are using them. Defense
mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously
used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable
thoughts or feelings.
Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious level and help
ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good things
feel better for the individual.
Defense Mechanisms
Healthy persons normally use different defenses
throughout life. According to Freud, defense mechanisms
are methods that ego uses to avoid recognizing ideas or
emotions that may cause personal anxiety.
DEFENSE
MECHANISMS
10 Key Defense Mechanisms
Sigmund Freud (1894, 1896) noted a number of ego
defenses which he refers to throughout his written
works. His daughter Anna Freud (1936) developed these
ideas and elaborated on them. Many psychoanalysts
have also added further types of ego defenses.
Other researchers have also described a wide variety of
additional defense mechanisms.
Anna Freud
Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was an
Austrian-British psychoanalyst. She was born in Vienna,
the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund
Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her
father and contributed to the field of psychoanalysis.
1. Regression
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes

abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of
behavior used earlier in development. In other words,
regressions involves taking a position of a child rather
than acting in a more adult way when faced with a
problematic situation.
Example: A college student carefully takes his/her teddy
bear with him/her and goes to sleep cuddling it.
2. Repression
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Repression is another well-known defense mechanism.

Repression acts to keep information out of conscious awareness.
Thus, when things occur that we are unable to cope with now, we
push them away, either planning to deal with them at another time
or hoping that they will fade away on their own accord. The level of
‘forgetting’ in repression can vary from a temporary abolition of
uncomfortable thoughts to a high level of amnesia, where events
that caused the anxiety are buried very deep.
2. Repression
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

However, these memories don't just disappear; they continue to

influence our behavior. For example, a person who has repressed
memories of abuse suffered as a child may later have difficulty
forming relationships.
Examples: - A child who is abused by a parent later has no
recollection of the events, but has trouble forming relationships.
- A man has a phobia of spiders but cannot remember the first
time he was afraid of them,
3. Reaction Formation
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Reaction formation reduces anxiety by taking up the

opposite feeling, impulse, or behavior. Reaction formation
occurs when a person feels an urge to do or say something
and then actually does or says something that is effectively
the opposite of what he/she really wants.
An example of reaction formation would be treating
someone you strongly dislike in an excessively friendly
manner in order to hide your true feelings.
4. Isolation
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Isolation involves separating the anxiety-provoking aspects of an event from

one’s other thoughts and behaviors.
The defense mechanism of isolation can lead a person to separate ideas or
feelings from the rest of their thoughts. In distinguishing an emotion or
impulse from others in this way, a person attempts to protect the ego from
anxieties caused by a specific situation. For example, a person with a
particularly stressful job may use isolation to separate their work life from
their family life, avoiding the stress affecting their relationships.
5. Undoing
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

When we act on an idea or impulse that we later regret, we may adopt a

defense mechanism of attempting to “undo” that action in order to protect
the ego from feelings of guilt or shame.
For instance, after realizing you just insulted your significant other
unintentionally, you might spend the next hour praising their beauty, charm
and intellect. By “undoing” the previous action, the person is attempting to
counteract the damage done by the original comment, hoping the two will
balance one another out.
Another Example: A man who has been unkind to his wife buys her flowers.
6. Projection
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Projection is the misattribution of a person’s undesired

thoughts, feelings, or impulses onto another person who
does not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses.
Projection is used especially when the thoughts are
considered unacceptable for the person to express, or
they feel completely ill at ease with having them.
6. Projection
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

For example, a spouse may be angry at their significant other for not
listening, when in fact it is the angry spouse who does not listen.
Projection is often the result of a lack of insight and acknowledgement
of one’s own motivations and feelings.
Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own
unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.
Another Example: An unfaithful husband suspects his wife of infidelity.
7. Introjection
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Introjection occurs when a person takes stimuli in their

environment and adopts them as their own ideas. This may involve
internalising criticism from another person and believing the other
person’s points to be valid. A person may introject religious ideas
that they have heard at church, or political opinions that friends
espouse. Behavior can also be introjected - the mannerisms of a
father may be observed by his son and then replicated.
8. Turning against the Self
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Turning against the self is a very special form of displacement, where

the person becomes their own substitute target. It is normally used in
reference to hatred, anger, and aggression, rather than more positive
impulses, and it is the Freudian explanation for many of our feelings of
inferiority, guilt, and depression.
For example, when the wife states loud and clear that her husband is
not to blame for his infidelity, that it is her fault as she did not
communicate enough with him.
9. Reversal
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Reversal, essentially, consists in transforming what is passive into

active; an individual who feels that she is the passive object of a
painful situation can reverse it and become the active agent of
that same situation.
In psychoanalytic theory, this defense mechanism involves a
switch from one behavior to its opposite
A common example is the transformation of the need to depend
on others into making others depend on one.
10. Sublimation
10 Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)

Sublimation is a defense mechanism that allows us to act

out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors
into a more acceptable form. This, it is a transformation of
unwanted impulses into something less harmful. Many
sports and games are sublimations of aggressive urges.
For example, a person experiencing extreme anger might
take up kick-boxing as a means of venting frustration.
Other Defense Mechanisms
Other researchers have continued to describe other
methods of reducing anxiety. Some of these defense
mechanisms include displacement, denial,
intellectualization, rationalization, etc.
1. Displacement
Have you ever had a really bad day at work and then gone
home and taken out your frustration with family and
friends? Then you have experienced the ego defense
mechanism of displacement.
Displacement involves taking out our frustrations,
feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less
threatening.
2. Denial
Denial is probably one of the best-known defense mechanisms,
used often to describe situations in which people seem unable to
face reality or admit an obvious truth (e.g., "He's in denial").
Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something
has occurred or is currently occurring. People living with drug or
alcohol addiction often deny that they have a problem, while
victims of traumatic events may deny that the event ever occurred.
3. Intellectualization
This defense mechanism allows us to avoid thinking about the
stressful, emotional aspect of the situation and instead focus only
on the intellectual component.
For example, a person who has just been diagnosed with a
terminal illness might focus on learning everything about the
disease in order to avoid distress and remain distant from the
reality of the situation.
4. Rationalization
Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves explaining an
unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner,
avoiding the true reasons for the behavior. When something happens
that we find difficult to accept, then we will make up a logical reason
why it has happened.
For example, a person who is turned down for a date might rationalize
the situation by saying they were not attracted to the other person
anyway. A student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor
rather than their own lack of preparation.
Other Defense Mechanisms
5. Acting out: It literally means acting out the desires that are forbidden by the
superego and yet desired by the id. Therefore, it refers to coping with stress by
engaging in actions rather than acknowledging and bearing certain feelings.
Example: A person who dislikes another person seeks to cause actual harm to
him/her.
6. Aim inhibition: It involves accepting a modified form of their original goal. In
aim inhibition, we lower our sights, reducing our goals to something that we
believe is actually more possible or realistic.
Examples: becoming a high school basketball coach rather than a professional
athlete
Other Defense Mechanisms
7. Altruism: Satisfying internal needs through helping others.
Example: A self-made millionaire who grew up in poverty sets up a
charitable foundation and gains pleasure from how it helps others.
8. Avoidance: Refusing to deal with or encounter unpleasant objects or
situations
Example: My son does not like doing homework. Whenever the subject
of school comes up, he changes the topic. He also avoids looking
directly at me.
Other Defense Mechanisms
9. Compensation: Overachieving in one area to compensate for failures in
another area.
Example: A person who failed in Math excelled in English.
10. Fantasy (Day Dreaming) : Avoiding reality by retreating to a safe place
within one's mind.
Example: A student who flunks university exams imagines that they could
have passed the exams ‘if they really wanted to’.
Other Defense Mechanisms
11. Humor: Pointing out the funny or ironic aspects of a
situation
Example: A man who has been unkind to his wife buys her
flowers,
References
Cherry, K. (2022). 20 Common Defense Mechanisms Used for Anxiety.
https://www.verywellmind.com/defense-mechanisms-2795960

McLeod, S (2020). 10 Defense Mechanisms: What Are They and How They Help Us Cope.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html

Kelland, M (2020). Anna Freud and Ego Psychology.

https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Psychology/Book%3A_Personality_Theory_in_
a_Cultural_Context_(Kelland)/05%3A_Neo-
Freudian_Perspectives_on_Personality/5.02%3A_Anna_Freud_and_Ego_Psychology

Eduardo, J & Panganoron, C (2015). Human Behavior & Crisis Management. Wiseman’s Books
Trading Inc.