View source for WBR0070

{{WBRQuestion
|QuestionAuthor={{Ochuko}}
|ExamType=USMLE Step 1
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|MainCategory=Behavioral Science/Psychiatry
|SubCategory=General Principles
|Prompt=A 22 year old student who is currently being evaluated for chronic alcohol dependence visits his primary care physician and extols the values of abstinence and engages in a prolonged discussion about how the Government should have legislations to ban the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
This is an example of which of the following phenomena?

|Explanation=Defense mechanisms (or coping styles) are automatic psychological processes that protect the individual against anxiety and from the awareness of stressors, both internal and external. As a coping style, individuals are often unaware of these processes as they manifest them. In this vignette, reaction formation is being employed by the subject to avoid his true emotions (i.e. his wish to consume alcohol), as a result, the subject keeps potentially threatening feelings, memories, wishes, or fears out of awareness and assumes an opposite position.
|AnswerA=Rationalization
|AnswerAExp=Rationalization is applying a string of reasons as justification for why the unacceptable is acceptable in the current instance. It is usually an excuse. For example, a guy after being refused a date by a lady begins to claim that he wasn’t attracted to the lady.
|AnswerB=Reaction formation
|AnswerBExp=Reaction formation is a process where a feeling or an action is replaced by an opposite one. This is an unconscious or involuntary reaction to a prior behavioral pattern.
|AnswerC=Displacement
|AnswerCExp=Displacement is a redirected emotion or phobia. The source of the emotion stays the same, but the target changes. For example, a woman divorced by her husband punishing her son as the reason why the husband left her.
|AnswerD=Denial
|AnswerDExp=Denial is when an individual asserts that a true situation is not so. A common example is reacting to the death of a loved one by asserting it is untrue for the loved one to be dead.
|AnswerE=Sublimation
|AnswerEExp=Sublimation is moving an unacceptable impulse into an acceptable channel. Example, a notorious street thug joins the local gym to train in order to become a professional boxer.
|RightAnswer=B
|Approved=Yes
}}