Ego Defense

Mechanisms
methods of attempting to protect the self and
cope with basic drives or emotionally painful
thoughts, feelings or events
operates at the unconscious level of awareness,
people are not aware of what they are doing
and often need help to see the reality
 Ego Defense Mechanisms

Compensatio
n Conversion Denial

Failure to
Expression of an acknowledge an
Overachievement emotional conflict unbearable
in one area to through the condition; failure
offset real or development of a to admit the
perceived physical symptom, reality of a
deficiencies in usually situation, or how
another area sensorimotor in one enables the
nature problem to
continue
 Ego Defense Mechanisms

Displacemen
t Dissociation Fixation

Immobilization
Ventilation of Dealing with of a portion of
intense feelings emotional the personality
toward persons conflict by a resulting from
less threatening temporary unsuccessful
than the one alteration in completion of
who aroused consciousness tasks in a
those feelings or identity developmental
stage
 Ego Defense Mechanisms

Intellectualizatio
Identification Introjection
n

Modeling actions
Separation of the
and opinions of
emotions of a
influential others Accepting
painful event or
while searching another person’s
situation from
for identity, or attitudes, beliefs,
the facts involve;
aspiring to reach and values as
acknowledging
a personal, social one’s own
the facts but not
or occupational
the emotions
goal
 Ego Defense Mechanisms

Rationalizatio Reaction
Projection Regression
n Formation

Excusing own Moving back

Unconscious
behavior to to a previous
blaming of Acting the
avoid guilt, developmental
unacceptable opposite of
responsibility, stage in order
inclinations or what one
conflict, to feel safe or
thoughts on an thinks or feels
anxiety, or loss have needs
external object
of self-respect met
 Ego Defense Mechanisms
Sublimatio
Repression Resistance
n
Excluding
Overt or covert
emotionally
antagonism Substituting a
painful or
toward socially
anxiety-
remembering or acceptable
provoking
processing activity for an
thoughts and
anxiety- impulse that is
feelings from
producing unacceptable
conscious
information
awareness
 Ego Defense Mechanisms
Substitutio Suppressio
Undoing
n n
Conscious
Replacing Exhibiting
exclusion of
the desired acceptable
unacceptabl
gratification behavior to
e thoughts
with one make up for
and feelings
that is more or negate
from
readily unacceptabl
conscious
available e behavior
awareness
 INTERPERSONAL THEORY
• Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949)
– American psychiatrist, believed that personality
dynamics and disorders are caused primarily by
social forces and interpersonal situations
– viewed loneliness as the most painful human
experience
– emphasized that early relationship with the
significant other as crucial for personality
development and believed that healthy relationships
were necessary for a healthy personality
 INTERPERSONAL THEORY
• Anxiety – is an interpersonal phenomenon
that is transmitted empathically from the
significant other to the child, and also by
perceived degrees of approval or disapproval
felt by the child
– all behavior is aimed at avoiding anxiety and
threats to self esteem
 INTERPERSONAL THEORY
• ways to avoid anxiety:
– good me – focusing on positive attributes
– bad me – hiding the negative aspects of ourselves
from others and even from ourselves
– not me – represents things that we find
objectionable that we cannot even imagine them
being part of us
 Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
• a hands on system in which therapist actively
guide in challenged maladaptive behaviors and
distorted views
– focus is on the here and now with the emphasis on
the patients life and relationship at home, at work,
and in the social realm
– therapist becomes participant observer
– the premise of this work is that if people are aware of
their dysfunctional pattern and unrealistic
expectations, they can modify them
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• Ivan Pavlov (1927)
– is famous for investigating classical conditioning in
which involuntary behavior or reflexes could be
conditioned to respond to neutral stimuli
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• John B. Watson (1930)
– rejected psychoanalysis and was seeking an objective
therapy that did not focus on unconscious motivation
– he contended that personality traits and responses,
adaptive and maladaptive, were learned
– conditioned Little Albert, a 9-month-old to be
terrified at the sight of white fur or hair
– concluded that through behavioral techniques
anyone could be trained to be anything, from a
beggar to a merchant
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• B.F. Skinner (1938)
– conducted research on operant condition in which
voluntary behaviors are learned through
consequences of reinforcement
– positive reinforcement – a consequence that
causes the behavior to occur more frequently
– negative reinforcement – punishment, a
consequence that causes the behavior to occur
less frequently
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• Behavioral Therapy/ Behavior Modification
– uses basic tenets from each of the behaviorists
– attempts to correct or eliminate maladaptive
behaviors or responses by rewarding or reinforcing
adaptive behavior
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• Systematic Desensitization
– based on classical conditioning
– learned responses can be reversed by first
promoting relaxation and then gradually facing a
particular anxiety-provoking stimulus
– successful in extinguishing PHOBIAS
 Systematic
Desensitization
The client is asked to make a list of situations
involving the phobic object, from the least to the
most anxiety-provoking. The client learns and
practices relaxation techniques to decrease and
manage anxiety. He or she is then exposed to the
least anxiety-provoking situation and uses the
relaxation techniques to manage the resulting
anxiety. The client is gradually exposed to more and
more anxiety-provoking situations until he or she
can manage the most anxiety-provoking situation.
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• Aversion Therapy
– based on both classical and operant conditioning
and is used to eradicate unwanted habits by
associating unpleasant consequences with them
– ei disulfiram (Antabuse); people who take this
medication and then ingest alcohol become
extremely ill; with sex offenders who may receive
electric shock in response to arousal from child
pornography
 BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
• Biofeedback
– is a technique in which individuals learn to control
physiological responses such as breathing rates,
heart rates, BP, brain waves, and skin temperature
– this control is achieved by providing visual and
auditory biofeedback of the physiological
response and then using relaxation techniques
such as slow, deep breathing or meditation
 COGNITIVE THEORY
• Aaron T. Beck
– develop a cognitive therapy approach with
depressed patients, he became convinced that
depressed people generally had standards
patterns of negative and self-critical thinking
 COGNITIVE THEORY
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
– a commonly used effective and well research
therapeutic tool based on both cognitive and
behavioral theory and seeks to modify negative
thoughts that lead to dysfunctional emotions and
actions
– Goal: first to identify the negative patterns of
thought that lead to negative emotions, once
identified, they can be replaced with rational
thoughts
 COGNITIVE THEORY
• ABCs of Irrational Belief – a four-column
format to record the precipitating event or
situation, the resulting autonomic thought,
the proceeding feelings and behaviors, and
finally, a challenge to the negative thoughts
based on rational evidence and thoughts
 Activating Belief Consequences Reframing
Event
Trent has been My therapist is Sadness, There is no
in counseling disgusted with rejection, and evidence to
for depression. me and wants hopelessness. believe that I
His therapist’s to avoid me. Decides to call disgust my
secretary off work and therapist. Why
called and return to bed. would he have
canceled this rescheduled if
week’s he really didn’t
appointment. want to see
me?
 COGNITIVE THEORY
– Autonomic thoughts – rapid, unthinking
responses based on schemas
– cognitive distortion – irrational because people
make false assumptions and misinterpretations
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
All or nothing thinking Over generalization

• Thinking in black • Using a bad

and white, outcome as
reducing complex evidence that
outcomes into nothing will ever go
absolutes right again
• Cheryl got second • Marie had a traffic
highest score in the accident. She
cheerleading refuses to drive
competition. She and says “I
considers herself a shouldn’t be
loser allowed on the
road”
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
Labeling Mental Filter
• A form of
generalization where a
characteristic or event
becomes definitive
and results in an
overly harsh label for
self or others
• Because I failed the
advance statistics
exam, I am a failure. I
might as well give up
• Focusing on a negative
detail or bad event
and allowing it to taint
everything else
• Ann’s boss evaluated
her work as exemplary
and gave her a few
suggestions for
improvement she
obsessed about the
suggestions and
ignored the rest
Examples of Cognitive Distortions

Disqualifying the Positive

• Maintaining a negative view by

rejecting information that supports a
positive view as being irrelevant,
inaccurate, or accidental
• I’ve just been offered a job I’ve always
wanted. No one else must have
applied
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
Jumping to Mind Reading Fortune Telling
Conclusions Error

• Making a • inferring • anticipating

negative negative that things will
interpretation thoughts, turn out badly
despite the fact responses, as an
that there is motive of established fact
little or no others • I’ll ask her out,
supporting • The grocery but I know she
evidence store clerk was won’t have a
• My fiancé Mike grouchy and good time
didn’t call me barely made
for 3 hours eye contact. I
therefore he must have
doesn’t love done
me something
wrong
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
Magnification or Catastrophizing
minimization
• Exaggerating the
importance of
something or reducing
the importance of
something
• I’m alone on Saturday
night because no one
likes me. When other
people are alone, it’s
because they want to
be
• An extreme form of
magnification in which
the very worst is
assumed to be a
probable outcome
• If I don’t make a good
impression on the
boss at the company
picnic she will fire me
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
Emotional Should and Must Personalization
Reasoning Statements

• Drawing a • Rigid self • Assume

conclusion directives that responsibility
based on an presume an for an external
emotional state unrealistic event or
• I’m nervous amount of situation that
about the control over was likely out
exam. I must external events of personal
not be • My patient is control
prepared. If I worst today. I • I’m sorry that
were I would should give your party
not be afraid better care so wasn’t more
that she will fun. It’s
get better. probably
because I was
there.
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
– a Swiss psychologist and researcher
– described cognitive development as a dynamic
progression from primitive awareness and simple
reflexes to complex thoughts and responses
– according to Piaget, our mental representations of
the world, or schemata depend on the cognitive
stage we have reached
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Sensorymotor Stage –
0 to 2 years
• begins with basic reflexes
and culminates with
purposeful movement,
spatial abilities, and hand
eye coordination
• 9 months, object
permanence is achieved,
peek-a-boo
Preoperational Stage –
2 to 7 years
• children are not able to
think abstractly or
generalized qualities in the
absence of specific objects
but rather think in a
concrete fashion
• egocentric thinking
• inability to conserve mass,
volume or number
Concrete Operational Formal Operational
Stage – 7 to 11 years Stage – 11 years to
• logical thought appears and adulthood
abstract problem solving is • conceptual reasoning
possible commences
• see a situation from
another’s point of view
• conservation is possible
• understand the concept of
reversibility
THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

• Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

– a German born American child psychoanalyst
– describe development as occurring in eight
predetermined life stages
 HUMANISTIC THEORY

• Carl Rogers (1961)

– developed patient-centered psychotherapy
– technique that emphasized the role of the patient
in understanding one’s own problems, the role of
the therapist is that of facilitator rather than
director
 HUMANISTIC THEORY

• Abraham Maslow (1970)

– known for developing a theory of personality and
motivation based on a hierarchy of needs
– when lower level needs are met, higher needs are
able to emerge
HUMANISTIC THEORY
Self-
Trans
cend
ence
need
s:
Self-Actualization needs:
Becoming every ting one
is capable of
Esteem needs: self-esteem related to
competency, achievement and esteem from
others

Belongingness and Love needs: Affiliations, affectionate

relationships, love

Safety needs: Security protection, stability, structure, order and limits

Physiologic needs: Oxygen, food, water, sleep, sex

 THEORY OF OBJECT RELATIONS
• developed by interpersonal theorist who
emphasized past relationships in influencing a
person sense of self as well as the nature and
quality of relationships in the present
 THEORY OF OBJECT RELATIONS
• Margaret Mahler (1895-1985)
– Hungarian psychologist who worked with emotional
disturbed children, developed a framework for looking
at how an infant goes from complete self absorption
with an inability to itself as separate from its mother, to
a physically and psychologically differentiated toddler
– Notes that raising healthy children does not require
that parents never make mistakes, and that “good
enough parenting” will promote successful separation-
individuation.
 THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)

– an American psychologist, develop a theory on
how people progressively develop a sense of
morality
 THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Pre-Conventional level
– Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment
• focus on rules and on listening to authority, people at
this stage believe that obedience is the method to
avoid punishment
– Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange
• individuals become aware that not everyone thinks the
way that they do, and that rules are seen differently by
different people, if they or others decide to break the
rules, they are risking punishment
 THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Conventional Level
– Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships
• People begin to view rightness or wrongness as related
to motivations, personality, or the goodness or badness
of the person, people should not get along and have
similar values.
– Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order
• a “rule are rules” mindset
• people had begun to adopt a broader view of society
 THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Post-Conventional Level
– Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
• still believe that social order is important, but social
order must be good; has the duty to protect the rights
of others
– Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles
• actions should create justice for everyone involved; we
are obliged to break unjust law
 ETHICS OF CARE THEORY
• Carol Gilligan (1936)
– an American psychologists, ethicist, and feminist
who inspired the normative ethics of care theory
– suggests that a morality of care should replace
Kohlberg’s “justice view” of morality, which holds
that we should do what is right no matter the
personal cost or the cost to those we love.
 Stages of Moral Development

Stage Goal Action

Pre- Goal is individual survival- Caring for self
conventional selfishness
Conventional Self sacrifice is goodness- Caring for others
responsibility to others
Post- Principle of nonviolence – do Balancing caring for self
conventional not hurt others or self with caring for others
 BIOLOGICAL MODEL
• mental disorders are believed to have physical
causes, therefore, mental disorders will respond
to physical treatment
• 1950-chlorpromazine (thorazine), widely used
for treatment of schizophrenia
• Biological therapy
– psychopharmacology
– ECT
– talk therapy
 EXISTENTIAL THEORIES
• believe that behavioral deviations result when
a person is out of touch with himself or herself
or the environment
 Rational Emotive Therapy
Albert Ellis
• a cognitive therapy using confrontation of “irrational
belief” that prevent the individual from accepting
responsibility for self and behavior
• Logotherapy – Viktor E. Frankl
– a therapy designed t help individuals assume
personal responsibility
– the search for meaning (logos) in life is a central
theme
– counselors and therapists who work with clients in
spirituality and grief counseling often use this
concepts
• Gestalt therapy – Frederick S. Perls
– a therapy focusing on the identification of feelings in
the here and now, which leads to self-acceptance
– believed that self-awareness leads to self-acceptance
and responsibility for one’s own thoughts and feelings
– often use to increase client’s self-awareness by
writing and reading letters, journaling and other
activities designed to put the past to rest and focus on
the present
• Reality Therapy – William Glasser
– therapeutic focus is need for identity through
responsible behavior
– individuals are challenged to examine ways in which
their behavior thwarts their attempts to achieve life
goals
– working with persons with delinquent behavior,
unsuccessful school performance, and emotional
problems who often blame their problems on other
people, the system, or society