Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BAT 4 Final Handouts
BAT 4 Final Handouts
What influences led to the final act of the assassin of the late Sen. Benigno Aquino on
August 21, 1983? What are your reactions to panic-buying of prime commodities observed
among residents especially in Metro Manila? Are you in favor of the use of Filipino as the
medium of instruction in colleges and universities? Do you like the way you have been
brought up by your parents?
Responses to the above questions will reveal in varying tones and degrees the
attitudes of the respondents. They may fully or partially express or manifest their true feelings
or they may succeed in keeping them to themselves if they intend to do so in the first place.
A. Cognitions. Cognitions are our beliefs, theories, expectancies, cause and effect beliefs,
and perception relative to the focal object.
B. Affect. The affective component refers to our feeling with to the focal object such as fear,
liking, or anger.
C. Behavioral Intentions. Behavioral intentions are our goals, aspirations, and our expected
to the object.
A person forms his own attitudes despite outside influences on his behaviors such as
the teaching of elders or peers. For instance, a young boy who is regularly reminded to
observe the rules of personal hygiene may or may not attend to the bodily cleaning routine
on initiative, depending upon the attitude he has formed toward keeping oneself clean. Our
attitudes are important determinants of behavior. If the young boy in our example has formed
a negative attitude towards personal hygiene, he would regularly irritate the concerned family
members with his obstinacy during the bathing and cleaning ritual hours.
We have learned in our unit on perception that our attitudes influence what we
perceive. Attitudes determine what we notice in the environment, how we code the
information we notice, and what our responses would be.
1. Our attitudes are determinants of our behavior. Since our attitudes are important
determinants of our behavior, it can be said, that in general, positive or negative
attitudes toward certain things are manifested in behavior. For example, a person
interested in his job arrives at his place of work on time, works with enthusiasm, asks
pertinent questions so that he may improve his performance, and works beyond
departure time. On the other hand, the young child who has a negative attitude
towards schooling can successfully feign sickness to avoid attending his class, or
fabricate unpleasant experiences with classmates or probably with his teacher which
can justify the behavior of cutting class that he is exhibiting.
2. Our attitudes influence our social perceptions and vice-versa. Social perception and
social attitude are interdependent, each affecting the other. Advertising campaigns of
large corporations dedicate enormous outlays and a great deal of effort toward getting
people buy their products. Government agencies work to create attitudes about
protecting the national economy by using less electricity and imported goods, by
walking more instead of using cars to be able to save gasoline, and so on schools try
hard to change student's study habits and wasteful use of time. Sons and daughters
of a family try very hard to convince their parents to increase their allowance, toward
liking their hair or dress styles, or toward accepting their friends and weekend
activities. Have you once tried and succeeded in changing your parents' unfavorable
attitude toward your personal activities and preferences?
3. Our behavior can be predicted from our attitudes. The way we behave shapes our
attitudes. Suppose that during the Japanese occupation of the country, a young
Filipino witnessed how some of his countrymen were maltreated by Japanese
soldiers; hence his being greatly prejudiced against the Japanese. Years later, this
Filipino was sent to Japan on a scholarship for further studies in veterinary
microbiology. He had pleasant and gainful experiences with Japanese students taking
the same course. Because of his happy associations in that country he may become
less prejudiced against the Japanese. His changed behavior has brought about
changed attitudes, too.
4. Attitudes can have a strong and lasting impact on individuals, groups, and societies.
Individuals are usually attracted to others whose attitudes toward certain things and
events are similar to theirs. Close friends generally enjoy the same activities, such as
sports, reading novels, watching movies, attending gatherings, and so on.
5. Attitudes help us walk with the world around us. On the whole, attitudes and their
associated belief systems (a belief is a judgment that a preposition is true or false)
help us cope with the world. Attitudes provide a basis on which we can make
decisions and act on motivationally relevant matters. As long as our attitudes and
beliefs enable us to deal adequately with our environment, we are likely to accept
them as valid. However, when they fail to meet our needs, they are likely to be
changed or probably modified by us so that we can cope with the changed demands
or conditions in our environment. In the country, various attitudes of the people
toward important issues such as toward martial law, the devaluation of the peso, the
assassination of Senator Aquino, certain provisions of the Constitution, even the state
of nationhood, and so on, emerge as attitudinal propositions for coping with the
surrounding.
Attitudes are generally learned through three basic ways: classical conditioning,
instrumental conditioning, and imitation. Parents hold certain attitudes, and early in life,
children likewise ascribe to the same position even though their parents have not specifically
tried to teach these to them. These are, quite possibly, learned by association with pleasant
things that occur in social setting in families — in naturally occurring forms of — classical
conditioning. Studies by Bandura reveal that the learned associations can also be acquired
by mere observation. For example, observing another person hurt in a traffic accident serves
to make us more careful along busy roads. We may adopt attitudes of our parents or other
people close to us because we see how important those attitudes are to them and feel we
and/or other individuals can benefit from them, too.
Morgan describes the main agents that influence the formation of attitudes at different
periods of development:
1. Attitude Influences from Birth to Puberty. Parental influences primarily shape
children's attitudes from birth to puberty. Studies have shown high correlation between
attitudes of children and those of their parents. There is more overall similarity than
dissimilarity in their attitudes. 'Mother says that it is not good to play with the
neighbors' children." or "Father tells me that Aquino was a brave man. He was not
afraid to die." Statements like these undoubtedly reveal the attitudes of parents who
uttered them to their children. Likewise, the attitudes of the very young reflect parental
influences that obviously have long-lasting effects.
2. Attitude Influences from Twelve to Thirty (The Critical Period in Attitude Formation).
Parental influences wane and other social influences become increasingly important
with the beginning of adolescence. This starts the critical period of attitude formation
which ends at about 30, whereby most of the person's attitudes take final form and
change little thereafter. At this time, the three main factors that influence the formation
of attitudes' from news, the media and other sources, and education come into play.
During adolescence, when boys and girls spend less time in their home and with their
parents, and more time with friends and Classmates, peers (people of the same general age
and educational level with whom one associates) become powerful influences since they are
readily accepted as "authorities," people that are liked and easy to talk to.
Depending on how far a person goes in his schooling, education more importantly stands
out as the factor involved in the formation of his attitudes. People high in economic status but
low in education tend to be conservative, especially in economic matters. Those with higher
economic status and high education tend to be liberal.
Attitudes are shaped during the period of adolescence (12-21) and crystallized during young
adulthood (21-30) taking any of the following sequences:
1. Commitment. The attitudes of the adolescents vary quite a bit and are not yet
strongly held. Upon reaching the twenties, they commit themselves in various ways,
they vote in elections, they finish their education, find employment, or decide to marry.
These commitments tend to freeze the attitudes they hold so that these do not change
much afterwards.
2. Conservative drift. College students are slightly more conservative twenty years after
their graduation from college. Older people see this small drift toward conservatism in
themselves. This is the only thing that happens to attitudes once they are crystallized
in the twenties.
SOURCES OF ATTITUDES
2. Communication from Others. These may consist of various forms: For children,
specifically, these are informal verbal instructions they hear or receive from members of
the family; for young adults, these are opinions expressed by others who are highly
respected or admired by them; and for everyone, various mass media (television, radio,
films, newspapers, and magazines) are important in influencing and maintaining
attitudes. Generally we tune out information that contradicts with our opinion and find
support for what we already believe in.
3. Models. Identification with the model and respect for his judgment tend toward
acceptance of the model's way of perceiving and feeling about certain situations.
Children and adults seek to emulate and to retain values, attitudes, and beliefs of people
that are functional. Non-functional and unrewarded attitudes are consequently ignored.
4. Institutional Factors. Many institutions in our society, such as churches, schools, military
organizations, and the like function as sources of and support attitudes and beliefs.
1. Proximity. Studies cited by Hilgard (Rubin, 1973, and Priest and Swayer, 1979), show
that a very good predictor of whether two people are friends is how far apart they live.
Most married couples were neighbors as children, or studied in the same university
blocks as students, or worked in the same office or building. This implies that people
are attracted to one another if they see each other most often.
2. Familiarity. Research from Hilgard (Zajon, 1968) also revealed that just as proximity or
nearness creates liking, familiarity or sheer exposure increases it. The strength of the
"familiarity breeds-liking" effect is obvious as we note the persistent visiting of a young
man to his object of admiration who does not yet reciprocate the affection showered
upon her. Eventually, he is able to win the heart of the girl basically through familiarity.
3. Similarity. People who are initially similar in many aspects generally like each other
and end up as better friends than those who are dissimilar in various ways. Successful
marital adjustment is common among couples who are similar in educational level,
general intelligence, professional aspirations, and probably in age and socio-economic
status.
4. Physical attractiveness. Hilgard, et al., 1983, mention that in general, people tend to
believe that what is beautiful is good and what is good is beautiful. This stereotyped
belief (an overgeneralized, often false belief about a group of people that lets one
assume that every member of the group possesses a particular trait) has its limitation,
however. As the authors further mention, physical attractiveness plays a less
important role when people seek marital partners. Choosing the life-time partner
generally follows the so-called matching stage whereby people tend to end up with
partners who match their own attractiveness.
Hilgard, et al., term the tendency for relationships to move from liking to greater intimacy as
love or the process of social penetration. This is markedly characterized by reciprocal self-
disclosure. They suggest that as shown by observations across cultures, strong long term
relationships are less based on the intensity of romantic love than on sufficient
communication between partners, on an acceptable proportion of division of labor, and on
equity in making decisions.
ATTITUDE CHANGES
There are three (3) theories of attitude change most popularly discussed.
1. The Reinforcement Theory of Attitude Change. The emphasis of this theory is on
giving the individual reinforcement for changing his or her attitude.
2. The Balance Theory of Attitude Change. According to this theory, people try to
maintain consistency, congruity, or balance in their attitudes toward some things. A
person, for example, who has a positive feeling about a certain thing, is likely to feel
uncomfortable and will try then to resolve his or her conflict. He/ she may do this by
probably changing his or her feeling in the unfavorable direction by rejecting the
information, or by reinterpreting the information so that it seems less negative.
3. The Cognitive Dissonance Theory. This theory involves a kind of cognitive conflict or
the occurrence of contradictory beliefs or ideas.
Group pressure can act either to change our attitudes or to maintain them. Through
control of important rewards such as popularity, promotions, and symbols of recognition, a
group may exert great influence toward conformity. On the other hand, continued non-
conformity may lead to a person's unpopularity, loss of prestige, ostracism, and the like.
The following observations have further been pointed out by Sartain regarding group
influence toward conformity or attitude change.
1. Greater group pressure can be put on as we manifest a great desire to belong to the
group.
2. If the group wants us as members, it will exert greater influence to have us agree with
its norms.
3. The less information we have about a group situation, the more we can be greatly
swayed by group pressure. The more information we have for holding on to our own
opinions, the better we can resist group pressure. Thus, if we know nothing of the
qualifications of political candidates, the more we can be influenced to vote for the
group's choice; on the other hand, the better informed we are of our candidate's
strengths or accomplishments, the more we are likely to follow our voting convictions.
4. Unanimous group agreement or uniformity is difficult to resist. It is difficult to disagree
when everyone in the group feels differently from us.
5. Discrepancies between our own attitudes and the group's norms may be resolved by:
(a) rejecting the group' s norms while holding strongly to our own attitudes;
(b) yielding to the group norms because of outside pressure but privately disagreeing with
these;
(c) superficial conformity with the group's norms without any deep changes in our attitudes;
and
(d) exercising flexibility and discrimination in reacting to the group's norms — accepting
some and rejecting others.
Not all attitude changes can be attributed to group factors. More impersonal appeals
by way of television, radio, magazines, books, speeches, and the like that surround us are to
some extent, directly aimed at changing our attitudes and opinions about the importance of
things, such as the better toothpaste or soap, the form of government suited for the country's
economic stability, the economy tips for fuel consumption, and others.
There are three parts in the act of communication that must be considered in
attempting to change an individual's attitude: the source of the communication (who says it),
the nature of the communication (what is said and how it is said), and the characteristics of
the audience (who hears it).
Attitude will be changed based on how a person sees the communication and the
communicator. Less committed people will change ideas more frequently. Attitude change
also has to do with other personality characteristics such as susceptibility to persuasion,
intelligence, readiness to accept change, etc. We are more likely to accept information if we
feel the communicator has no intent to change our attitudes and opinions.
When you attempt to convince an individual or group that your beliefs are the right
ones, would it be more effective to present only one side of the issue you believe in, or both
sides of the argument?
Does the order of presenting two sides, as in a debate or courtroom summation, have an
effect on people for them to be convinced?
Sometimes the speaker who speaks first leaves the dominant impression during a debate.
This is called the primary effect. But at other times, the last speaker's message remains
more vivid in memory only because his communication was the most recent — this is known
as the recency effect. In the Miller and Campbell study in 1999, an audience received a
condensed version of the transcript of an actual jury trial. All the arguments for the plaintiff
were presented in one block and all those for the dependent in another. The latter
immediately followed the former. A week was then allowed to pass before measuring the
audience's attitude. A significant primacy effect appeared that is, the first argument was more
influential than the second. In this case, the first argument that people had is more likely to
be the one they believe. As memory declines, the primary effect becomes more prominent.
In attempting to change people's attitudes, should there be an optimal level of discrepancy
(difference) between the attitudes of the audience and those of the communicator?
When a person discovers that someone feels differently about something that the person
does, it often produces a feeling of discomfort. And that feeling in turn, becomes a force
directed toward change. It therefore, can be said, that the greater the discrepancy between
how that person feels and how someone else feels, the more intense is the feeling of
discomfort, and the more intense the feeling of discomfort, the greater the tendency to
change attitudes.
People are motivated to discount or "put down" someone who has extremely different
attitudes. To avoid this, Mussen, et al. suggested that one should use someone of
recognized wisdom and trustworthiness as the communicator of the different attitudes.
According to them, it is more difficult to discount such a person, and so when attitudes are
highly discrepant, that kind of communicator can produce large degree of attitude change.
The common saying "familiarity breeds contempt" apparently does not hold ground in
matters of repeated advertisement of commercials. In the Sajon experiments (1998), it was
found that people repeatedly exposed to stimuli formed positive attitudes toward them,
whether those stimuli were nonsense syllables, unfamiliar music, unusual color
combinations, or faces. This also applies to the names of common grocery-store products.
Resistance to Persuasion
Education as Agent in Resisting Change
What can people do to preserve their independence of judgment under the barrage of
various attitude-changing processes or propaganda which are so much a part of our lives?
The importance of education in informing us and equipping us with knowledge to evaluate
situations critically and in regard to various values cannot be overestimated here. Education
makes us more resourceful and judicious in solving problems and even in judging the
veracity of propaganda or other means of mass communication.
Exposing people to counterarguments (similar to an inoculation with a weakened
virus) that are then refuted appears to strengthen their attitudes and to make them highly
resistant to change. Parents or governments that do not permit exposure to opposing belief
or viewpoints tend to foster resistant attitudes, but these are just as easily changed if they
are presented with effective counterarguments.
When our self-esteem is threatened, we are likely to resist vigorously any attempts to
change our attitudes. For example, an employee's proposal about a new advertising idea
may be rejected by his supervisor whose accepting or agreeing would appear to admit the
superiority of the former (his subordinate) and his weakness as supervisor. In cases,
however, where the threat of his self-esteem has been removed, he can change his opinion
and consider new proposals more objectively.
When our self-esteem is threatened, we are likely to resist vigorously any attempts to
change our attitudes. For example, an employee's proposal about a new advertising idea
may be rejected by his supervisor whose accepting or agreeing would appear to admit the
superiority of the former (his subordinate) and his weakness as supervisor. In cases,
however, where the threat of his self-esteem has been removed, he can change his opinion
and consider new proposals more objectively.
Changing Prejudiced Attitudes
Meaning and Nature of Prejudice
Prejudice is a fixed attitude toward a person or group. It is an irrational judgment
based on the emotion rather than on facts. The word "prejudice" is commonly used to
indicate negative judgment suggesting hostility toward another person, group, or object. In its
more destructive form, prejudice is debilitating in that it is used as a vehicle for the
expression of hatred of individuals towards one group simply because they belong to another
group.
Group prejudice is marked by unfavorable attitudes held by the members of a group
toward another group and its members, deviating from the norms of the group that regulate
treatment of the out-group.
The nature of prejudice and its social effects as presented by Silverman and Sartain, et al.
are outlined below.
Prejudiced people generally arrange to avoid the groups they dislike. Contacts with
the out group are considered dangerous and unhealthy unless clarification is made as to the
superiority of the majority group. The historical past and present minority groups (racial and
religious) have been lamentably colored with humiliations, holy wars, abuse and
extermination, segregation, and degradation.
Intergroup Relations and Prejudices
Sartain describes how prejudices exist in the context of four intergroup relations which
are outlined below:
1. Competition. When goals are scarce, individuals or groups rival or compete with each
other to obtain them through any means. Violence is minimal, as long as competing
parties accept and observe common rules although feelings may run high. Prejudice is
intensified as competition becomes keener.
2. Conflict. Here, the agreed-upon rules are violated by the rival groups or individuals as
they try to obtain their goals. The intensity of the struggle increases as commitment to
the norms regulating interaction becomes inadequate. The conflicting parties aggress
or pit against each other as in violent wars between countries.
3. Segregation and Discrimination. The dominant group imposes a boundary line
between the two groups and allocates power, privilege, and burdens in its own favor.
Discrimination exists anytime and anywhere — in schools, in military services, in
police departments, in the government service, and the like. Situational arousal of
prejudice between groups is minimized through obvious lack of contact, although
mutual prejudice remains strong.
4. Cooperation. Here the individuals or groups either work for a common goal or they
mutually facilitate each other's goal attainment. Working toward common
(superordinate) goals may be illustrated by the trading of goods in which both parties
gain. Cooperative interaction is associated with low prejudice
INTRODUCTION
Every day, we continuously respond to demands coming from our environment, our
own bodily needs, and even our learned needs. Often, our responses work out well and in
case they don't, we try to adjust to the conditions around and within us. When our attempts at
accommodation are successful, we are said to be adjusting efficiently and effectively.
Adjustment is best when we can deal with the conditions of frustration, conflict, or
stress in ways that enable us to meet our own demands and to a greater extent, those of our
environment.
The study of adjustment may help us in understanding the many varied factors that
contribute to the breakdown of adjustment, the successful attainment of which leads to
happiness and bodily equilibrium.
Shortly, one need or another, psychological or physiological, arises and the organism
has to find ways of satisfying it. Inability to do so may consequently lead to bodily
disequilibrium accompanied by tension and anxiety. Each of us develops characteristic ways
of responding to our problems, which determine, to a large extent, the adequacy of our
adjustment to life.
Frustration occurs when progress toward a desired goal is blocked or delayed. The
physical environment presents obstacles, as for example, noise, long waiting line at the
canteen, traffic jam, heavy downpour. Obstacles from the social environment may likewise
present us problems like parental rejection, racial or sexual discrimination, or failure to meet
the age requirement in a job applied for. Non-social factors like service interruptions, and the
like also as of Physical handicaps, lack of specific abilities, or inadequate and other personal
limitations usually to goal if goals are set beyond one's ability, frustration is the inevitable
result.
Frustration Tolerance
A major source of frustration is often a conflict between two opposing motives. When
two incompatible response tendencies are aroused, the satisfaction of one usually leads to
the frustration of the other. When our needs or goals are not compatible with environmental
or social requirements, we experience conflict. Almost always, every day we experience
some kind of conflict. On an unusually rainy morning and feeling a headache or having fever,
a person must decide whether to attend classes or to stay home. A groom-to-be with limited
savings should, choose between an elaborate wedding or a week-long honeymoon in an
exclusive hotel. Sometimes our own fears or insecurities conflict with our hopes and
ambitions. For example, personal insecurity may produce a conflict in a man who wants
more money for his family but is insecure about taking another job where pay is higher.
Conflict
When a person is having a hard time deciding whether to accept or to reject a goal, we say
that he is ambivalent toward it.
Usually, approach-avoidance conflict is the most difficult conflict to resolve.
Value Conflicts
Tension and conflict in modern life could be frequently caused by value conflicts such
as conformity versus non-conformity, caring versus non-involvement, avoidance versus
facing reality, fearfulness versus positive action, integrity versus self-advantage, and sexual
desires versus restraints. Value conflicts usually arise from the contradictory demands
imposed by the society.
Unconscious Conflicts
Some conflicts are hidden. The person in conflict may not recognize the conflict or
may not know its source. Some of these conflicts are hard to resolve because they involve
strong emotions. As a result, the person fails to deal with his conflict. An adolescent who is
not conscious of the conflict between his urge to be independent and his need to still be
nurtured and protected by his parents typifies this.
STRESS
Some stress is necessary for normal functioning. When life is peaceful and quiet for
too long, people become bored and they seek excitement. But stress that is too intense or
prolonged can have destructive physiological and psychological effects. Stress may include
any situation that calls for more than what is normal or usual for a person. The more a
particular demand approaches the limits of a person's capacities and talents, the greater the
stress will be. Likewise, stress is produced when this demand blocks some motive or
threatens a desired goal. A grave stress situation may be seen in people trapped in locked
burning houses. In their panic, they fail to resort to possible alternatives for escape. Similarly,
an individual entrusted a large amount of money by her close friend and has unfortunately
lost it somewhere, may be in a very stressful situation. There are two kinds of stress: positive
stress called eustress, and negative stress called distress.
1. The alarm reaction stage. The individual is momentarily immobilized, e.g., in a state of
shock, followed by a rapid and intense mobilization of bodily resources, including a
high degree of visceral and skeletal muscle activity.
2. The stage of resistance. During this period of recovery and restoration of balance, the
individual "adapts" to the stress. Outwardly, it appears to be a quiet stage, but the
endocrine glands, the anterior pituitary, and the adrenal cortex, in particular, are hard
at work helping the individual to adapt himself "to the stressful situation."
3. The stage of exhaustion. If the stress continues and the individual 3. is unable to
maintain the resistance level, exhaustion Occurs and the alarm reaction is repeated. If
stress persists, serious injury or even death may occur.
Sources of Stress
The five major sources of stress are:
1. Biological deprivation. Extreme hunger can cause deep physical and emotional
disturbances.
2. Danger (real or imagined). "Combat exhaustion" is a term used to describe a
breakdown in behavior resulting from danger experiences which rapidly produce
stress.
3. Threats to self-esteem. These threats are often affected by age and personality
factors. A person's own expectations may be an added source of stress. Some people
set such high standards for themselves completely. Their self-esteem is constantly
being threatened by the gap between the ideal and the existing conditions (reality).
Instead of taking pleasure and feeling pride in what they have accomplished, such
people experience stress because they focus their attention on what remains undone.
Well-adjusted people learn to combine ambition with an acceptance of their own
limitations.
4. Overload. This results from too much stimulation. City dwellers adapt to stress by
paying less attention to their surroundings than do rural people. For instance, they use
a variety of protective methods to cut themselves off from too much contact with other
people, even those whom they are friendly with.
5. Crises and stresses that accompany normal social and personal development. As we
grow up, we worry about our ability to meet the new demands and new roles that each
stage of life presents.
COPING
Coping is an active effort to eliminate or to get rid of stress. We try to deal directly with
the anxiety-producing situations by first, appraising the situation and second, by doing
something to avoid it or change its course. For example, you received a warning that you are
about to fail a course that is necessary for graduation. In this case, you might devise a work
schedule that will help you fulfill the requirements for the course and then start working on
them. These series of actions that you will do are designed specifically to help you cope with
your problem. The behavior that you use to deal directly with stressful situations is called a
coping strategy.
1. Direct action. Young children typically show vigorous action when their needs are not
satisfied. Instrumental aggression is a form of direct coping to achieve a goal that has
been blocked. The person aggressively tries to retrieve a desired object, to protect a
territory, or to keep a privilege.
2. Avoidance. Running away from something is not always an appropriate method of
coping with an anxiety-producing situation, although as an alternative to aggression, it
is often more effective and has the advantage of being usually more acceptable to
others.
3. Prediction. This helps reduce stress by making us confident that we have handled a
situation well. If we know, for example, that an unpleasant situation is about to come,
we can predict in what ways it may be hard to handle and hence, concentrate on
preparing specific defenses rather than being totally reduced to fearful guessing of
what the future events may bring.
4. Use of defense mechanisms
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Frustration and conflict generate anxiety which must be relieved, d an anxiety-ridden
individual has to organize his behavior to reduce patterns this anxiety that protect. When an
coping individual fails, defense mechanism or behavior patterns that protect individual from
pain, shame, or guilt are used. Instead of coping with the sources of our distress, we may
look for ways to reduce the discomfort and tension that frustrations and conflicts produce.
Defense mechanisms do not interfere with good ineffective adjustment in daily unless life.
There are three main types that of defense mechanism: escape reactions, compromise
reactions and substitute activities, and aggressive reactions.
Escape Reactions
These are characterized by withdrawal from the frustrating or anxiety-producing
situation. Some forms of these are:
Repression
This is the unconscious withdrawal of certain painful thoughts or feelings. For
example, a girl may deliberately "tend to forget" the moments she had shared with her past
boyfriend just because thoughts of him would only make her grow fond of him and recall the
events that accompanied their breaking up. It is meant to reduce anxiety but it creates
problems when used heavily. This state of defensive "forgetfulness" is basically a retreat
from reality. The constant struggle to keep repressed memories from becoming conscious
may use up all the person's energies, leaving a tired, nervous, and unproductive individual.
Repression is an automatic unconscious process. If we exclude from our consciousness a
thought or feeling with awareness of what we are doing, it is suppression; Repressed wishes
and feelings may find expression occasionally in "slips" of speech, unconscious expressive
gestures, and even in one's dreams.
Fantasy
Another attempt of people to escape from their frustration is by retreating into a world
of fantasy or make-believe. Daydreaming is the most common form and it has several types:
display —where an individual would probably dream that he is a brilliant concert pianist and
receives splendid standing ovation and piercing shouts of—— "Bravo! Bravo!; saving where
a person sees himself as a world famous surgeon who is the only one capable of performing
an impossible operation on his girlfriend's father who has been hurt seriously in an
automobile accident; grandeur where one looks at himself as a baron of a medieval feudal as
he goes by, the field workers who are serfs bow; and homage – such a druggist who
discovers a solution for the deterioration of world's food caused by atomic fallout and for this,
he receives a Nobel Prize. Adolescents and even adults usually engage in daydreaming
when they are most worried about their unfulfilled roles as human beings. Over-dependence
on fantasy solutions may eventually result in an inability to distinguish the real from the
unreal. When this occurs, the behavior would be a pathological one.
Regression
This technique of escaping from frustrating or anxiety-producing conditions involves
reverting to earlier or more primitive forms of behavior, the reverse of progression. Fixation
should not be confused with regression because in the former, a particular kind of behavior
remains abnormally long at a given level. Fixation and regression are complementary to each
other; regression is more likely to occur in a period where there has been a fixation.
Regression is illustrated when a child who is upset by the arrival of a new sibling
resorts to thumb sucking, bedwetting, and others to get the parental attention he 'enjoyed
when he was younger. The persistence of regressive behavior only makes it more difficult for
the person to cope with his frustration.
Apathy
This common response to a frustrating condition is the opposite of active aggression
and is characterized by indifference or withdrawal. Children whose aggressive outbursts are
never successful — who find they have no power to satisfy their needs by means of their
own actions — may resort to apathy and withdrawal when faced with subsequent frustrating
situations.
Reaction Formation
This defense mechanism is a tendency to conceal a motive from oneself by giving
strong expression to the opposite motive. For example, a person with repressed sexual ideas
may consciously exhibit near-continuous shame and disgust for the sexual act and all sexual
objects; he guarantees 'may also that be involved his repressed in "anti" sexuality activities,
will such censoring pornographic literature, when actually he is fascinated these obscene
materials, He wages a campaign against it to fight this fascination and to convince others of
his own purity.
The existence of reaction formation in some people does not mean that motives can
never be taken at face value. People who defending themselves against their own
unacceptable impulses can often be distinguished from socially concerned reformers by the
excessive zeal with which they pursue their campaign and occasional slips that reveal their
true motive.
Denial
This is a "negative fantasy" where an individual may refuse to admit the existence of a
reality too painful or unpleasant to face. For example, a mother may refuse to admit that her
daughter has been forced to have sex with several men by their gang leader. Because she
cannot face this grim fact, she may even resort to consistently ignoring criticisms hurled
against her very own daughter.
Sometimes, denying facts may be better than facing them in the sense that it may give the
individual time to tolerate the pain at a more gradual pace. On the other hand, denial also
has negative aspects as in cases where people postpone seeking medical attention.
Rationalization
One of the most widely used defense mechanisms is rationalization. Here, self-
esteem is maintained by assigning plausible and acceptable reasons to one's own failure.
Alibis are used to substitute for real causes. Cohen enumerates the different forms and
examples of rationalization:
Argument by Predestination
This is an insistence that every individual is a pawn of fate and that all events are
preordained. Euripides, in 420 B.C. wrote of predestination: "What must be, no one will ever
make so that it is not." Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C. and disavowed
responsibility for the coming battle by saying "Jacta alea esto" (Let the die be cast). A
popular song chants: "Que sera sera." The law student, who fails his bar examination,
rationalizes: "I was never meant to be a lawyer." Other rationalizations by predestination
include "Everything happens for the best," "Only time will tell," and "It is an act of God."
Argument by Exception
This rationalization reasons that the individual's shortcoming is highly unusual and
unrepresentative and therefore permissible. Typical statements are "I'll drink whiskey just this
once; I only want to see what it is like," and "I never failed a course before; it just isn't like
me."
Argument by Comparison
This is the peculiar assertion that the shortcoming of others cause the individual' s
shortcomings. Representative rationalizations are "It was all right to cheat a little; everybody
else scribbled more," and "I failed, but some students received an even lower grade."
Argument by Sympathism
This is a plea for underserved compassion. Examples of this are "I can't be expected
to pass English. I came from a poor home and had no opportunity to use it at home," and "I
didn't get the teaching job because I wear glasses and I don't see well."
Argument by Procrastination
This admits a present frailty, but postpones its correction to the future. Examples of
procrastination rationalizations are "I should have performed well on the exam, but I promise
to do better next time," and "I'll think about the problem tomorrow. Maybe it will go away."
Argument by Intellectualism
This shrouds a shortcoming with technical language so that its true severity cannot be
evaluated easily. Representative intellectualization rationalizations are "I was in the 23rd
percentile, where the raw scores are expressed as T scores" (translation "I flunked"), and "I
am parsimonious" (translation "I am selfish").
Identification
Sometimes an individual unconsciously identifies himself with other persons or things;
he perceives the satisfied motives of others as his own or his own satisfied motives as
belonging to others. This defense mechanism is called identification and it may take any of
the following types.
Anna Freud has described a special kind of introjection, identification with the aggressor. The
persecuted, threatened person may defend his ego against anxiety by mimicking the
persecuting, threatening attacker. Children often identify with their aggressor, pretending for
example, to be a dentist after being hurt by a dentist.
Sublimation
This defense mechanism is characterized by the redirection or rechanneling of urges
(mostly libidinal or sexual) toward more socially acceptable forms of expression. According to
Freud, sublimation occurs when people realize that their attempts to reach their goal will
meet with frustration. They redirect their behavior toward an alternative goal that can be
fulfilled without risking guilt or threat to their self-esteem Thus, persons who are sexually
frustrated often substitute an abiding interest in the arts or sciences with high intensity and
prolonged attachment, leading to super-productivity.
Aggressive Reactions
When a person fails in his attempt to realize a certain goal which had been thwarted
by a social being, personal inadequacy, or in-animate objects, depending on the severity of
his frustration he may manifest destructiveness and hostile modes of behaving, termed
aggression. There are two types of aggressive reaction:
Direct Aggression
Frustration often leads to an actual or direct aggression against the individual or object
that is the source of the frustrating condition. Some children attack the wire barrier, trying to
remove it or get around it. Aggression of this kind is not necessarily hostile; it may be a
learned way of solving a problem. When one child takes a toy from another child, the second
is likely to attack the first in an attempt to regain the toy. Adults usually express their
aggression verbally rather than physically; they are more likely to exchange insults than do
boys.
Displaced Aggression
When the source of frustration is vague and intangible or when the person responsible
for the frustration is so powerful that an attack would be dangerous, aggression may be
displaced and the aggressive reactions may be directed toward an innocent person or object
(see figure) rather than toward the actual cause of the frustration. A woman working as a
secretary in a business firm, for example, having been reprimanded by her boss may have a
"carry over" of her unpleasant experiences when she gets home and may take out her
unexpressed resentment on her family. A boy may strike the wall with his fist upon learning
that he received a failing mark in one of his subjects. A student who has been humiliated by
her teacher may Figure 63 draw a caricature of this source of her unpleasant experience.
According to the famous catharsis hypothesis, aggression can be reduced through
participation in vigorous but non harm often activities. The findings of recent research,
however, agree with figure: the value of catharsis has probably been overstated.