AQA Approaches in Psychology Practice Test

The idea here is that the ego protects itself from the anxiety caused by opposing forces—the id's urges and the superego's moral demands—by using defense mechanisms. These are unconscious processes that distort or manage reality to keep inner conflict from becoming overwhelming. For example, repression pushes threatening thoughts out of awareness, denial refuses to acknowledge painful truths, displacement redirects emotions to safer targets, projection attributes one's own unacceptable feelings to others, rationalization offers acceptable-sounding reasons for actions, and sublimation channels impulses into socially acceptable activities. Because these strategies operate below conscious awareness, they help the ego cope without us actively realizing we’re using them. The other options describe thinking or processes that aren’t specifically unconscious strategies the ego employs to resolve intrapsychic conflict.