Defense Mechanisms Influence Our Behavior

Learning about defense mechanisms helped me understand myself and others. Employing these methods decreases our internal stress. Many times, these reactions are unconscious. Being aware of our defense mechanisms allows us to find a better way to work through internal stress.

• Denial - denying anxiety exists. For instance, a student may deny the need to study and go to the movies instead.

• Repression - pushing stressful thoughts worries or emotions out of mind. Many who have had a traumatic event occur, repress the thoughts so they don’t have to deal with them, pretending it never happened or—they can’t remember it.

• Rationalization - explaining away unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and motives. Shoplifting is OK. Everyone does it.

• Regression - returning to previous, less mature types of behavior. When sick, we become childish, wanting others to care for us as they did when we were children.

• Scapegoating - blaming other persons or groups. The dog ate my homework. My hero is not a crook. Everyone is just out to get him.

• Projection - attributing an unacceptable thought or feeling about yourself to others. I’ve seen this happen before. Someone starts accusing you of a certain behavior, and you realize that’s the behavior they’re exhibiting.

• Displacement - finding safe, less threatening persons or objects and venting frustration on them. I do displace and have watched others displace many times. It goes like this: The boss yells at the man. He cannot or will not yell back. He goes home and yells at his wife. She cannot or will not yell back. The wife yells at the child, who cannot or will not yell back. The child kicks the dog.

I’ve had bad things happen at work and have gone home and yelled at your moms. Yikes! Thank goodness I learned to catch myself and apologize. If someone suddenly attacks you, it’s probably displacement. Take a chill pill.

It’s not personal.

• Sublimation - directing socially unacceptable impulses through socially acceptable channels. Perhaps someone prone to violence becomes a police officer or, an individual who has no family to love, throws his/her efforts into helping abandoned cats and dogs.

• Compensation - attempting to remove feelings of frustration or inadequacy by excelling in other areas. A student may feel she has no friends and to compensate, hurls herself into excelling in school.

• Cognitive dissonance dealing with conflicting beliefs and attitudes by disregarding, discrediting, or avoiding information that pushes against what we believe.

Someone who vapes, for instance, may view it as a safe way to consume nicotine. Steering clear of information about its dangers or claiming those who are delivering that information are not credible, reduces the stress when vaping.

Marie W. Watts, former human resource consultant and trainer, has assembled a collection of tools for better living into a condensed book, RiRi’s Advice To The Grands. (RiRi is her grandma name.) These tools for life contributed to the popularity of the textbook she co-authored, Human Relations 4ed., by Dalton, Hoyle, and Watts. First published in 1990, the book still garners worldwide sales. Additionally, these skills have been presented to adult learners in business settings.

The book can be purchased at the Fayette County Record.