A person sitting next to you in class gets a low grade on this exam. When you discuss the exam results, the person blames their performance on the difficulty of the material, their lack of belief in psychoanalytic theory, lack of the necessity to have this knowledge in the future, belief that the material is irrelevant, etc. This student may be using the Freudian defence mechanism of to explain his or her poor behaviour.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The student is rationalizing their poor performance on the exam by citing various reasons such as the difficulty of the material, lack of belief in psychoanalytic theory, and lack of relevance of the material. This is a common use of the defence mechanism of rationalization, where the person comes up with seemingly logical or reasonable explanations for their behaviour or actions to avoid feeling guilty or ashamed.

A Person Sitting Next to You in Class Gets a Low