8 Ego Defense Mechanisms And Coping Styles

We are living in a civilized society so it is not sensible to act out all our socially unacceptable impulses openly. We'he to control them but when the ego fears losing control between the demands of id and superego, anxiety occurs. According to Freud id, ego and superego make the structure of our personality.

8 Ego Defense Mechanisms And Coping Styles

Id operates on pleasure principle and it demands immediate gratification of impulses or needs. Id compels the individual to deal immediately with certain stressors or tensions e.g. when hunger or thirst builds up, id compels the organism to seek food or water to relieve tension. Freud saw id as inborn, unconscious portion of personality where two types of instincts reside: the life and death instincts. The life instincts, which he called Eros, promote positive, constructive behavior and reflect a source of energy known as libido. Life instincts motivate behavior that satisfies basic needs but they also can engender loftier and more uniquely human acts, including musical or artistic creativity. Freud saw the second type of instincts called Thanatos, or death instincts, as responsible for aggressive or destructive acts.

Superego operates on moral principle and it consists of moral values and standards taught by parents and society. If these values and standards are overly rigid, the person may be guilt-ridden and inhibit all aggressive or other unacceptable impulses. Such a person is considered to have harsh superego. In contrast, a person who fails to incorporate any standard for acceptable social behavior will have few behavioral constraints and may engage in excessively self-indulgent of criminal behavior.

Ego operates on reality principle which means the gratification of impulses must be delayed until the appropriate environmental conditions are found e.g. ego delays the satisfaction of hunger and other needs until having own food and not by snatching or stealing. It acts as a mediator between the demands of the id, dictation of superego and limitation of reality. As a result, ego feels anxiety and tries to minimize it in order to enable a person to function normally. Freud proposed that the ego protects itself against anxiety with ego defense mechanisms. These are automatic psychological processes and people are often unaware of these processes as they operate. People differ in the balance among their id, ego and superego system and in the defense they use to deal with anxiety. An individual's approach to the problem situation reflects his or her manner of coping with the conflicting demands of the id, ego, and superego.

If defense mechanisms are used in excessive form they play the very damaging role in the development of personality. Individual's personality becomes weak and he cannot face the challenges of reality. If these mechanisms are used in a normal range, then these are not harmful because these are adopted by a normal person to reduce the tension. Some of the defense mechanisms used commonly are.

1. Denial: refusal to accept a particular part of reality is known as denial. When an individual cannot tolerate pain related to reality, he resorts to the defense mechanism of denial. Many people use denial in their everyday lives to avoid dealing with painful feelings or areas of their life they don't wish to admit. Fewer forms of denial may be seen in persons who consistently ignore criticism, fail to perceive that others are angry with them, or disregard all kinds of clues that exist in reality.
   
2. Projection: The mechanism by which neurotic or moral anxiety is converted into an objection fear is called projection. It refers to the process of unconsciously attributing one's own unacceptable impulses, attitudes, and behaviors to other people or to the environment. As a result, the person blames someone or something else for his own shortcomings and defects. If someone has a tendency to be critical or unkind to other people, the person will not admit this tendency.  Instead, he will be convinced that people around him are cruel and unkind. A very common strategy used by students who fail in exams, they always project their feelings to the strict marking criterion or carelessness on the part of the examiner. Projection is often the result of a lack of insight and acknowledgment of one's own motivations and feelings.
   
3. Rationalization: It refers to giving good reasons rather than true reasons in order to justify or make actions or mistakes seem reasonable. In it, a person consciously generates self-justifying explanations in order to hide the real reasons for his actions. Irrational behavior is misinterpreted to make it appear rational. This strategy is most commonly used, especially by students, who justify their failures by attractive reasoning. Sour grapes are the best example of rationalization. When confronted by success or failure, people tend to attribute achievement to their own qualities and skills while failures are blamed on the people or outside forces.
   
4. Reaction formation: Reaction Formation is the converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites. For instance, a person who is very angry with his boss and would like to quit the job may instead be overly kind and generous toward his boss and express a desire to keep working there forever. He is incapable of expressing the negative emotions of anger and unhappiness with his job and instead becomes overly kind to publicly demonstrate his lack of anger and unhappiness.
   
5. Repression and Suppression: Repression is another well-known defense mechanism. Repression acts to keep information out of conscious awareness. 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. Sometimes we do this consciously by forcing the unwanted information out of our awareness, which is known as suppression. In most cases, however, this removal of anxiety-provoking memories from our awareness is believed to occur unconsciously.
   
6. Displacement: Displacement involves taking out our frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening. Displaced aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism. Rather than expressing our anger in ways that could lead to negative consequences (like arguing with our boss), we instead express our anger towards a person or object that poses no threat (such as our spouse, children, or other objects).
   
7. Sublimation: It is a defense mechanism that allows us to act out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form. For example, a person experiencing extreme anger might take up kick-boxing as a means of venting frustration. Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity that allows people to function normally in a socially acceptable way.
   
8. Other defense mechanisms: Since Freud first described the original defense mechanisms; other researchers have continued to describe other methods of reducing anxiety. Some of these defense mechanisms include:
   
   
   • Acting Out: In this type of defense, the individual copes with stress by engaging in actions rather than reflecting upon internal feelings.
     
   • Affiliation: This involves turning to other people for support.
     
   • Aim Inhibition: In this type of defense, the individual accepts a modified form of his original goal (i.e. becoming a high school basketball coach rather than a professional athlete.
     
   • Altruism: Satisfying internal needs through helping others.
     
   • Avoidance: Refusing to deal with or encounter unpleasant objects or situations.
     
   • Compensation: Overachieving in one area to compensate for failures in another.
     
   • Humor: Pointing out the funny or ironic aspects of a situation.
     
   • Passive-aggression: Indirectly expressing anger.

While defense mechanisms are often thought of as negative reactions, some of these ddefenses can be helpful. For example, utilizing humor to overcome a stressful, anxiety-provoking situation can actually be an adaptive defense mechanism. In other cases, they allow people to temporarily ease stress during critical times, allowing them to focus on what is necessary in the moment.

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