Defense Mechanisms

I think that I have a lot of repression which is when a person completely blocks a threatening idea or memory from their brain. Depending on the situation, I usually block the thing that is annoying me most from my mind so that I don't have to think about it. For example, with school, when I have a big test coming up in say Calculus, instead of stressing over the annoying test, I forget about it until the night or two days before and then on those days I take out my notes and study for the test. The worst thing, in my mind, is worrying about a test weeks in advance. Another example would be when say my sister takes likes my digital camera. Instead of starting a fight on the spot, I usually wait until I actually need it to get angry with her about forgetting the situation. In this case, I would say that nine out of ten times; my sister returns the camera thinking I didn't even know about and therefore we avoid the fight.

Another thing that I tend to do is rationalize things a lot. I tend to think that sometimes when I do things it isn't really bad or that it could be worse. For example, when I get a low grade on a test; instead of getting down, upset, and annoyed with the test/teacher; I would re-study the material on the test and tell myself that it was just a difficult test. In this case, I usually do much better on the next test because I have continually told myself that the first test was just hard and then I study harder for the second making it easier and allowing myself to get a better grade. It may not be the most effective way to think of things but sometimes reminding yourself that a situation could be worse helps you do better the next time. A lot of times I find annoying stuff happening to me-just the other day, I slipped on ice- but when I fell down and got back up; I thought to myself that it could have been worse. IT could have been worse if I wasn't able to get back up or had injured myself. This is why I tell myself that sometimes a situation could have been worse.

Sigmund Freud-12/22/10

Sigmund Freud was a very important part of developmental psychology in the years that he was alive. He created the idea that we are driven to make our own decisions based on the person that we were originally created to be. He believed that a large part of who we are was due to our lovers and how you were treated as a child. AS a child, Freud was treated as if he were the golden child with special treatment. He also believed in the talking treatment and that talking out problems. He would smoke cocaine and he created the Freudian slip. This means that people would say random things in conversation which people didn't know what they meant. He believed that our upbringing and childhood along with romances shaped the person that you are.(fix)