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?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

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

查看解析

登录即可查看完整答案

类似问题

A teenager who feels attracted to a classmate behaves in an overly hostile and dismissive way toward them. Which defense mechanism is at play?

Jose is unconsciously angry at his roommate, so he goes out of his way to be kind and helpful. What kind of defense mechanism would Freud suggest Jose is using?

The unconscious act of keeping or threatening thoughts, feelings, or impulses out of consciousness is called

A classmate gets a low grade on this exam. When you discuss the exam results with this person, they blame their performance on the difficulty of the material and their belief that the material is irrelevant. This student appears to be using which defence mechanism to explain their poor behaviour?

How does projection differ from reaction formation?

In the psychoanalytic theory, the ego preserves or protects itself from feelings of anxiety by using defense mechanism.

A mother who has deep-seated hostility toward her only child but shows overprotection and hyperconcern for the physical well-being of her child illustrates which Freudian defense mechanism?

更多留学生实用工具

考试浏览器助手

风格化写作助手

论文查重助手

文献引用助手

课堂转译助手

课堂笔记助手

Quiz搜索助手

学校历年真题

智能刷题助手

智能匹配练习

希望你的学习变得更简单