What Is Compensation?

By Kendra Cherry
Psychology Expert
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Becoming good at a sport to overcome insecurities in other areas is one example of

compensation. Image by Ward Larson
Definition:
The term compensation refers to a type of defense mechanism in which people overachieve in
one area to compensate for failures in another. For example, individuals with poor family
lives may direct their energy into excelling above and beyond what is required at work.
The term is used surprisingly often in everyday language. "He's/She's probably just
overcompensating for something," is a phrase often used by people to suggest that a person is
indulging in excesses in one area of their lives in order to hide insecurities about other aspects
of their lives.

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The Pros and Cons of Compensation

While compensation is often portrayed in a negative light, it can have positive effects in some
cases. Psychologist Alfred Adler suggested whenever people experience feelings of
inferiority, they automatically experience a compensatory need to strive for superiority. As a
result, people push themselves to overcome their weaknesses and achieve their goals.
For example, imagine that a young boy experiences feelings of inferiority because he cannot
makes as many baskets as his peers do when they are playing basketball. Because of these
feelings of inadequacy, he pushes himself to overcome this weakness. He signs up for
basketball practice and start practicing on his own everyday after school. Eventually he
becomes an even better basketball player than many of his friends.
However, compensation can also prevent people from trying new things or attempting to
address shortcomings. For example, let's imagine that a young college student experiences
feelings or inferiority because she has few close friends. Everywhere she goes, she sees her
peers engaging in animated conversations with their friends. She compensates for this feeling
by saying to herself, "I may not have many close friends, but I have excellent grades!" Instead
of seeking out social connections, she throws herself into her schoolwork and spends little
time having fun or attending social events. In this instance, compensation has actually
prevented her from overcoming her feelings of inferiority.
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Compensation is just one of the many different mechanisms used to protect the ego from
anxiety. You can learn more in this article on defense mechanisms.
Name of
Defense
Mechanism

Description

Example

Repression

Burying a painful feeling or thought from your awareness

though it may resurface in symbolic form. Sometimes
considered a basis of other defense mechanisms.

You can't remember your father's

funeral.

Denial

Not accepting reality because it is too painful.

You are arrested for drunk driving

several times but don't believe you have
a problem with alcohol.

Regression

Reverting to an older, less mature way of handling

stresses and feelings

You and your roommate have get into an

argument so you stomp off into another
room and pout

Projection

Attributing your own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to

someone or something else

You get really mad at your husband but

scream that he's the one mad at you.

Splitting

Everything in the world is seen as all good or all bad with

nothing in between.

You think your best friend is absolutely

worthless because he forgot a lunch
date with you.

Isolation of
affect

Attempting to avoid a painful thought or feeling by

objectifying and emotionally detaching oneself from the
feeling

Acting aloof and indifferent toward

someone when you really dislike that
person

Displacement

Channeling a feeling or thought from its actual source to

something or someone else.

When you get mad at your sister, you

break your drinking glass by throwing it
against the wall.

Reaction
Formation

Adopting beliefs, attitudes, and feelings contrary to what

you really believe

When you say you're not angry when

you really are.

Rationalization

I always study hard for tests and I know

Justifying one's behaviors and motivations by substituting
a lot of people who cheat so it's not a big
"good", acceptable reasons for these real motivations
deal I cheated this time.

Altruism

Handling your own pain by helping others.

After your wife dies, you keep yourself

busy by volunteering at your church.

Humor

Focusing on funny aspects of a painful situation.

A person's treatment for cancer makes

him lose his hair so he makes jokes
about being bald.

Sublimation

Intense rage redirected in the form of

Redirecting unacceptable, instinctual drives into personally
participation in sports such as boxing or
and socially acceptable channels
football

Suppression

The effort to hide and control unacceptable thoughts or

feelings

Undoing

Trying to reverse or "undo" a thought or feeling by

You have feelings of dislike for someone
performing an action that signifies an opposite feeling than
so you buy them a gift
your original thought or feeling

Regression

You are attracted to someone but say

that you really don't like the person at all

Explanations > Behaviors > Coping > Regression

Description | Example | Discussion | So what?

Description
Regression involves taking the position of a child in some problematic situation, rather than
acting in a more adult way. This is usually in response to stressful situations, with greater
levels of stress potentially leading to more overt regressive acts.
Regressive behavior can be simple and harmless, such as a person who is sucking a pen (as a
Freudian regression to oral fixation), or may be more dysfunctional, such as crying or using
petulant arguments..

Example
A wife refuses to drive a car even though it causes the family much disorganization. A result
of her refusal is that her husband has to take her everywhere.
A person who suffers a mental breakdown assumes a fetal position, rocking and crying.
A child suddenly starts to wet the bed after years of not doing so (this is a typical response to
the arrival of a new sibling).
A college student carefully takes their teddy-bear with them (and goes to sleep cuddling it).

Discussion
Regression is a form of retreat, going back to a time when the person felt safer and where the
stresses in question were not known, or where an all-powerful parent would take them away.
In a Freudian view, the stress of fixations caused by frustrations of the persons past
psychosexual development may be used to explain a range of regressive behaviors, including:

Oral fixation can lead to increase smoking or eating, or vocal actions

including verbal abuse.

Anal fixation can lead to anal retentive behaviors such as tidying and
fastidiousness. Obsessive-compulsive disorders can occur including those
that lead to cruelty, extreme orderliness, or miserliness

Phallic fixation can lead to conversion hysteria (the transformation of

psychic energy into physical symptoms) which is disguised sexual
impulses.

Regression is one of Anna Freud's original defense mechanisms.

So what?

If the person with whom you are working is showing regressive symptoms, you can respond
to their child state in several ways, including taking a parent position of authority (nurturing
or controlling) or join them in their child place (thus building alignment).