Anthony has been getting angry at his friends quite often lately, and it's beginning to wear on his friendships. In a recent argument with one of his best friends, Merrick, Anthony insisted that Merrick was the hostile one, despite Anthony actually starting the fight. Anthony also insisted that he was the least angry of his friends, going so far as to describe himself as a role model because of his "easygoing" and "cooperative" nature. According to Freud, what defence mechanism(s) is/are being displayed by Anthony?

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The scenario involves Anthony misattributing hostility to his friend Merrick while presenting himself as calm and cooperative. This points toward mechanisms where inner feelings are displaced onto others or where false values are adopted to cover up unacceptable impulses.
Option A: rationalization. This would involve offering plausible-sounding excuses to justify his behavior or feelings after the fact. The description doesn’t show Anthony creating excuses for his anger; rather, he asserts others are hostile and portrays himself as easygoing, which aligns more with misattribution than with providing justification. So this is not the best fit for what's described.
Option B: projection. Projection involves attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone else. Anthony accuses Merrick of being the hostile one and minimizes his own anger, which matches projection: he displaces his own aggression onto his friend rather than acknowledging it in himself.
Option C: reaction formation. This mechanism entails converting unacceptable impulses into their exact opposite, often expressing an exaggerated opposite attitude to mask true feelings. Anthony’s self-description as easygoing and cooperative, contrasted with his real anger and hostile behavior toward friends, can be read as an exaggerated opposite stance to disguise his true aggression. This aligns with reaction formation.
Option D: Both A and B. Since we judged rationalization (A) not the primary mechanism here and B (projection) is present, one might consider a combination. However, the evidence more strongly fits projection and reaction formation rather than rationalization, making this pairing incomplete or misleading.
Option E: Both B and C. Given the above reasoning, Anthony appears to be exhibiting both projection (attributing hostility to Merrick) and reaction formation (portraying himself as easygoing and cooperative to mask his anger). This combination best accounts for the described behaviors compared to the other options.
Overall, the analysis shows that the behavior corresponds to two defense mechanisms in tandem—projecting his own hostility onto another and adopting an outwardly opposite, exaggeratedly calm persona as a cover for his true aggressive feelings. This interpretation helps distinguish these mechanisms from simple rationalization or from attributing one’s anger solely to external factors, which would not require the simultaneous use of both B and C.

PSYC_V 305 991 2025W1 Unit 2 Exam

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