Question 1

The defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others is called

Accepted Answer

Projection is the defense mechanism by which people attribute their own unacceptable impulses, feelings, or thoughts to others instead of acknowledging them in themselves. This helps them avoid anxiety and guilt associated with those impulses.

Question 2

Parents who disguise hostility toward their children by becoming overly protective of them are very likely using the defense mechanism of

Accepted Answer

The defense mechanism that best fits the described behavior of parents is reaction formation. This defense mechanism involves expressing the opposite of one's true feelings or impulses. In this case, the parents may feel anger or hostility towards their child but express it by becoming overly protective. This allows the parents to avoid confronting and dealing with their negative feelings towards their child.

Question 3

Four-year-old Timmy had not wet his bed for over a year. However,he started bed-wetting again soon after his sister was born. Timmy's behavior best illustrates

Accepted Answer

Regression involves a return to an earlier stage of development in response to stress or a crisis. Timmy's bed-wetting behavior, which he had not exhibited in over a year, returned after the birth of his sister. This suggests that he may be regressing to an earlier stage of development as a way of dealing with the stress and changes brought about by the new family dynamic.

Question 4

Mrs. Smith,who is White and unconsciously in favor of racial segregation,tells her friends that most Blacks prefer to live in residential neighborhoods inhabited predominantly by Blacks. According to psychoanalytic theory,Mrs. Smith best illustrates

Accepted Answer

Mrs. Smith is projecting her own unconscious desire for racial segregation onto the Black community, assuming that they share the same preference. Projection involves attributing one's own unacceptable desires or characteristics to other people.

Question 5

Carl Jung referred to a shared reservoir of memory traces from our species history as the

Accepted Answer

Carl Jung believed in the concept of a collective unconscious, which is a shared reservoir of memory traces from our species history, inherited from our ancestors. This is the best choice and is the most directly related option compared to the others.

Question 6

Freud would have suggested that an excessive fixation is most likely to contribute to

Accepted Answer

According to Freud's psychosexual stages of development, an individual who becomes fixated at a certain stage may regress to behaviors and thought patterns associated with that stage. This can happen if the individual experiences anxiety or difficulty during later stages of development, resulting in a return to earlier, more comfortable behaviors.

Question 7

Alfred Adler was a neo-Freudian who coined the term

Accepted Answer

Alfred Adler coined the term "inferiority complex," which refers to an individual's sense of inadequacy or inferiority in comparison to others. This complex can arise from early childhood experiences or feelings of being unable to measure up to societal standards. Adler believed that this complex could drive an individual to strive for success as a way to compensate for their perceived inferiority.

Question 8

The defense mechanism in which self-justifying explanations replace the real,more threatening unconscious reasons for actions is

Accepted Answer

Rationalization is a defense mechanism where individuals come up with self-justifying explanations for their behavior instead of acknowledging the true underlying unconscious reasons. This enables them to avoid feelings of guilt or anxiety.

Question 9

Neo-Freudian personality theorists were most likely to disagree with Freud about the importance of

Accepted Answer

Neo-Freudian theorists, such as Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney, disagreed with Freud about the importance of childhood sexual instincts in shaping personality. They believed that social and cultural factors also played a significant role, and focused more on the individual's conscious experiences and interpersonal relationships.

Question 10

Abdul mistakenly believes that his classmates are unusually hostile. In fact,Abdul is the most quarrelsome and aggressive child in the school. According to psychoanalytic theory,Abdul's belief that his classmates are hostile is a

Accepted Answer

According to psychoanalytic theory, projection is a defense mechanism that involves attributing one's own unwanted or unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors onto others. In this case, Abdul's belief that his classmates are hostile is actually a reflection of his own hostility and aggression, which he is projecting onto others.

Question 11

Hasina was an abused child; as an adult,she is homeless and squanders any money she can find on alcohol. Alfred Adler would have suggested that Hasina suffers from

Accepted Answer

Alfred Adler believed in the importance of social and environmental factors in shaping personality. He suggested that individuals may develop an inferiority complex due to various life experiences, such as childhood abuse or neglect. Hasina's experiences as an abused child could have contributed to her feelings of inferiority, which may manifest as homelessness and alcoholism as an adult. Therefore, the best choice is C, an inferiority complex.

Question 12

While Professor Gomez was going through a painful divorce,he tended to create unnecessarily difficult tests and gave his students unusually low grades. A psychoanalyst would be most likely to view the professor's treatment of students as an example of

Accepted Answer

Displacement is a defense mechanism where an individual redirects their emotional feelings from the original source of stress to a safer or more convenient target. In this case, Professor Gomez is redirecting his emotional distress from his divorce onto his students by creating difficult tests and giving low grades.

Question 13

Refusing to believe or even to perceive painful realities constitutes the defense mechanism known as

Accepted Answer

Refusing to believe or perceive painful realities is a classic example of denial as a defense mechanism.

Question 14

Melissa is unconsciously fearful that her husband is a better cook than she. Recently,she refused his offer to prepare dinner because,said she,"You could better spend the time playing with our kids." Melissa's comment best illustrates

Accepted Answer

Melissa's comment illustrates rationalization because she is justifying her refusal of her husband's offer to cook by providing a seemingly logical reason (he could spend time with their kids) to cover up her real, but unconscious, fear of being outperformed by him in cooking.

Question 15

Repression refers to the defense mechanism by which people

Accepted Answer

Repression is the defense mechanism by which people banish anxiety-arousing thoughts from consciousness. This means that the person unconsciously pushes down or blocks out certain thoughts or memories that are too difficult or painful to deal with.

Question 16

Freud suggested that slips of the tongue illustrate an incomplete

Accepted Answer

Freud believed that slips of the tongue (often called Freudian slips) are examples of repression, where unconscious thoughts or desires momentarily break through to the conscious level, usually in a distorted or symbolic form.

Question 17

Which neo-Freudian theorist emphasized the influence of the collective unconscious in personality development?

Accepted Answer

Neo-Freudian theorist Carl Jung emphasized the importance of the collective unconscious, a vast storehouse of shared human experiences and images that are part of the inherited structure of the human brain.

Question 18

A refusal to believe direct and highly credible evidence that your spouse is suffering a terminal illness best illustrates

Accepted Answer

Denial is the refusal to accept reality or acknowledge a painful or threatening truth. In this scenario, the refusal to believe direct and highly credible evidence of a terminal illness in one's spouse is a clear example of denial.

Question 19

Reaction formation refers to the defense mechanism by which people

Accepted Answer

Reaction formation involves expressing feelings or behaviors that are the opposite of one's unconscious impulses. This is done in order to minimize anxiety and protect oneself from consciously acknowledging those impulses.

Question 20

Karen Horney,a prominent neo-Freudian,disputed Freud's assumption that women

Accepted Answer

Karen Horney, a neo-Freudian psychologist, challenged several of Freud's theories, including his views on female psychology. She notably disputed Freud's claim that women have weaker superegos and inferiority feelings stemming from "penis envy," arguing instead for a more socio-cultural and less biologically deterministic perspective on gender differences.

Quiz 10: Clinical Intuition