Interpersonal Communication

and
Defense Mechanism
Personality Structure
Personality Structure
 Defense Mechanisms

 Defense mechanisms are a type of process or

coping that results in automatic psychological
responses exhibited as a means of protecting the
individual against anxiety (Dziegielewski 2010).
 Defense Mechanisms

 Identification and notation of defense mechanisms

can be an important part of the interpersonal
relations, especially in communication.
 Defense Mechanisms

Freud
Unconscious mental processes
employed by the ego to reduce
anxiety
 Defense Mechanisms

 Freud's Defense Mechanisms include:

 Denial: claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.
 Displacement: redirecting emotions to a substitute target.
 Intellectualization: taking an objective viewpoint.
 Projection: attributing uncomfortable feelings to others.
 Rationalization: creating false but credible justifications.
 Reaction Formation: overacting in the opposite way to the fear.
 Regression: going back to acting as a child.
 Repression: pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the subconscious.
 Sublimation: redirecting 'wrong' urges into socially acceptable actions.
 Defense Levels
 Defense mechanisms can be classified into groups
or levels that indicate how they affect an
individual's functioning
 High Adaptive Level

 Mental Inhibition Level

 Minor Image-distorting Level

 Disavowal Level

 Major Image-distorting Level

 Action Level
 Defense Levels
 High Adaptive Level: Defense mechanisms in
this group result in optimal adaptation to stress.
 The defenses usually maximize feelings of well
being and
 Allow the conscious awareness of feelings, ideas,
and their consequences.
 promote an optimum balance among conflicting
motives
 High Adaptive Level

 anticipation
 affiliation
 altruism
 humor
 self-assertion
 self-observation
 sublimation
 suppression
 Defense Levels

 Mental Inhibition Level: Defense mechanisms in this group

keep potentially threatening ideas, feelings, memories,
wishes, or fears out of awareness. Diminished awareness can
affect the person's ability to relate to others.
 displacement

 dissociation

 intellectualization

 isolation of affect

 reaction formation

 repression

 undoing
 Defense Levels

 Minor image-distorting level. This level is

characterized by distortions in the image of the
self, body, or others that may be employed to
regulate self-esteem. Examples are
 devaluation
 idealization

 omnipotence
 Defense Levels

 Disavowal level. This level is characterized by

keeping unpleasant or unacceptable stressors,
impulses, ideas, affects, or responsibility out of
awareness with or without a misattribution of
these to external causes. Examples are
 denial
 projection

 rationalization
 Defense Levels

 Major image-distorting level. This level is

characterized by gross distortion or misattribution
of the image of self or others. Examples are
 autistic fantasy
 projective identification

 splitting of self-image or image of others

 Defense Levels

 Action Level: This level is characterized by

defenses that deal with internal or external
stressors by action or withdrawal.
 acting out
 apathetic withdrawal

 help-rejecting complaining

 passive aggression
 Defense Levels

 Level of defensive dysregulation. This level is

characterized by failure of defensive regulation to
contain the individual's reaction to stressors,
 lead ins to a pronounced break with objective
reality. Examples are
 delusional projection
 psychotic denial

 psychotic distortion
 High Adaptive Level

 •Affiliation - involves dealing with stressors by turning to others for help or support. This involves sharing problems with
others but not trying to make someone else responsible for them.

 •Altruism - involves dealing with stressors by dedicating yourself to meeting the needs of others. The individual receives
satisfaction vicariously or from the response of others.

 •Anticipation - involves dealing with stressors by anticipating the consequences and feelings associated with possible future
events and considering realistic solutions.

 •Humor - involves dealing with stress by emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the situation.

 •Self-Assertion - involves dealing with stress by expressing your feelings and thoughts directly in a way that is not aggressive,
coercive, or manipulative.

 •Self-Observation - involves dealing with stress by reflecting on your own thoughts, feelings, motivation, and behavior, and
then responding appropriately.

 •Sublimation - involves dealing with stress by channeling potentially disruptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable
behavior (e.g., playing rugby to channel angry impulses).

 •Suppression involves dealing with stress by intentionally avoiding thinking about disturbing problems, wishes, feelings, or
experiences.
 Mental Inhibition Level

 •Displacement - involves dealing with stress by transferring strong feelings about on situation onto
another (usually less threatening) substitute situation.

 •Dissociation - involves dealing with stress by breaking off part of memory, consciousness, or perception
of self or the environment to avoid a problem situation (e.g., amnesia).

 •Intellectualization - involves dealing with stress by excessively using abstract thinking and
generalizations to avoid or minimize unpleasant feelings.

 •Reaction - Formation involves dealing with stress by substituting behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are
the exact opposite of your own unacceptable thoughts or feelings (which the person is usually not aware
of).

 •Repression - involves dealing with stress by removing disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from
conscious awareness. The person may still be aware of the feelings associated with the repressed issue, but
will not know where the feelings come from.

 •Undoing - involves dealing with stress by using words or behaviors designed to negate or make amends
symbolically for unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions.
 Minor Image Distorting Level

Devaluation - Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal

or external stressors by attributing exaggerated negative
qualities to self or others.

Idealization - Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal

or external stressors by attributing exaggerated positive
qualities to others.

Omnipotence - Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal

or external stressors by feeling or acting as if he or she
possesses special powers or abilities and is superior to others.
 Disavowal Level

 •Denial - involves dealing with stress by refusing to

acknowledge some painful aspect of reality or experience that
is apparent to others.

 •Projection - involves dealing with stress by falsely attributing

your own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts to
another person.

 •Rationalization - involves dealing with stress by concealing

the true motivations for a thought, action, or feeling by using
elaborate, reassuring, and self-serving (but incorrect)
explanations.
 Major Image Distorting Level
 Autistic fantasy - Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by
excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human relationships, more effective action, or problem
solving.

 Projective identification - As in projection, the individual deals with emotional conflict or internal
or external stressors by falsely attributing to another his or her own unacceptable feelings, impulses,
or thoughts. Unlike simple projection, the individual does not fully disavow what is projected.
Instead, the individual remains aware of his or her own affects or impulses but misattributes them as
justifiable reactions to the other person. Not infrequently, the individual induces the very feelings in
others that were first mistakenly believed to be there, making it difficult to clarify who did what to
whom first.

 Splitting - Involves dealing with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by

compartmentalizing opposite affect states and failing to integrate the positive and negative qualities
of the self or others into cohesive images. Because ambivalent affects cannot be experienced
simultaneously, more balanced views and expectations of self or others are excluded from emotional
awareness. Self and object images tend to alternate between polar opposites: exclusively loving,
powerful, worthy, nurturing, and kind or exclusively bad, hateful, angry, destructive, rejecting, or
worthless.
 Action Level

 •Acting Out - involves dealing with stress by using action rather than
reflection or feeling. Defensive acting out is often associated with "bad
behavior" when there are underlying emotional conflicts.

 •Help-Rejecting Complaining - involves dealing with stress by complaining

and making repeated requests for help that disguise hidden feelings of
hostility toward others, which is then expressed by rejecting the suggestions,
advice, or help that others offer. The complaints may involve physical or
psychological symptoms or life problems.

 •Passive Aggression - involves dealing with stress by indirectly and

unassertively expressing aggression toward others. The person displays an
outward superficial cooperativeness that masks the underlying resistance,
resentment, and hostility. This defense may be adaptive in situations where
direct and assertive communication is punished (e.g., abusive relationships).
 Communication

Communication - the evoking of a shared or common

meaning in another person
Interpersonal Communication - communication
between two or more people in an organization
Communicator - the person originating the message
Receiver - the person receiving a message
Perceptual Screen - a window through which we
interact with people that influences the quality,
accuracy, and clarity of the communication
 Telephone Game
 Getting Started. Players must sit in a circle or stand in a
straight line. They need to be close enough that whispering
is possible, but not so close that players can hear each other
whisper.
 Begin the Game. The first person in the line or circle
whispers a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting
or standing to their right.
 The Game Continues. Players whisper the phrase to their
neighbors until it reaches the last player in line.
 The Conclusion. The last player says the word or phrase out
loud so everyone can hear how much it has changed from
the first whisper at the beginning of the circle or line.
 Telephone Game

 Rules for Telephone Game:

 The word or phrase can only be whispered once, so

players must pay close attention.
 The word or phrase should never be a too familiar;
you want to make sure it changes as it is whispered.
 Only one player – the first – should know what the
word or phrase is. The facilitator of the game may
wish to have the original phrase or word written
down.
 Communication

Message - the thoughts and feelings that the

communicator is attempting to elicit in the
receiver
Feedback Loop - the pathway that
completes two-way communication
Language - the words, their pronunciation,
and the methods of combining them used
& understood by a group of people
 Communication

Data - uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts

Information - data that have been interpreted,
analyzed, & and have meaning to some user
Richness - the ability of a medium or channel
to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver
 Basic Interpersonal
Communication Model

/ / / /
/
/
Communicator /
/
/
/
Receiver /
/
Event
/
/
/
/ Message
/
/
/
/
X
/ / / /
/ / • Context / /
/ / / /
/ / • Affect / /

Perceptual screens Perceptual screens

Influence message quality, accuracy, clarity

Include age, gender, values, beliefs, culture,
experiences, needs
 Reflective Listening

Reflective Listening - the skill of listening carefully to

another person and repeating back to the speaker the
heard message to correct any inaccuracies or
misunderstandings

This complex What I heard you

process needs say was we will
to be divided to understand the
be understood process better if we
break it into steps
 Reflective Listening

 Emphasizes receiver’s role

 Helps the receiver & communicator clearly &

fully understand the message sent

 Useful in problem solving

 Reflective Listening

Reflective listening emphasizes

 the personal elements of the communication
process
 the feelings communicated in the message
 responding to the communicator, not leading the
communicator
 the role or receiver or audience
 understanding people by reducing perceptual
distortions and interpersonal barriers
 Reflective Listening:
4 Levels of Verbal Response

Affirm contact

Paraphrase the expressed

Clarify the implicit

Reflect “core” feelings

 One-way vs. Two-way
Communications
One-Way Two-Way
Communication - a Communication - the
person sends a message communicator & receiver
to another person and no interact
questions, feedback, or  Good for problem
interaction follow solving
 Good for giving
simple directions
 Fast but often less
accurate than 2-way
communication
 Five Keys to Effective
Supervisory Communication

 Expressive speaking
 Empathetic listening
 Persuasive leadership
 Sensitivity to feelings
 Informative management
 Barriers to Communication

Communication
 Physical separation
Barriers -
factors that block  Status differences
or significantly  Gender differences
distort successful  Cultural diversity
communication  Language
 Defensive Communication

Defensive Communication - communication that

can be aggressive, attacking & angry, or passive
& withdrawing
Leads to
 injured feelings

 communication breakdowns

 alienation

 retaliatory behaviors

 nonproductive efforts

 problem solving failures

 Nondefensive Communication

Nondefensive Communication -
communication that is assertive, direct,
& powerful
Provides
 basis for defense when attacked

 restores order, balance, and

effectiveness
 Two Defensiveness Patterns

Subordinate Defensiveness -
characterized by passive,
submissive, withdrawing
behavior

Dominant Defensiveness -
characterized by active,
aggressive, attacking behavior
 Defensive Tactics

Defensive Tactic Speaker Example

Power Play Boss “Finish this report by month’s
end or lose your promotion.”
Put-Down Boss “A capable manager would
already be done with this report.”
Labeling Boss “You must be a slow learner.
Your report is still not done?”
Raising Doubts Boss “How can I trust you, Chris, if
you can’t finish an easy report?”
 Defensive Tactics

Defensive Tactic Speaker Example

Misleading Employee “Morgan has not gone over with
Information me the information I need for
the report.” [Morgan left Chris
with a copy of the report.]
Scapegoating Employee “Morgan did not give me input
until just today.”
Hostile Jokes Employee “You can’t be serious! The
report isn’t that important.”
Deception Employee “I gave it to the secretary. Did
she lose it?”
 Nondefensive Communication:
A Powerful Tool
 Speaker seen as centered, assertive, controlled,
informative, realistic, and honest
 Speaker exhibits self-control & self possession
 Listener feels accepted rather than rejected
 Catherine Crier’s rules to nondefensive
communication
1. Define the situation
2. Clarify the person’s position
3. Acknowledge the person’s feelings
4. Bring the focus back to the facts
 Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication - all elements of communication
that do not involve words
Four basic types
 Proxemics - an individual’s perception & use of space

 Kinesics - study of body movements, including posture

 Facial & Eye Behavior - movements that add cues for the

receiver
 Paralanguage - variations in speech, such as pitch,

loudness, tempo, tone, duration, laughing, & crying

 Proxemics: Territorial Space

Territorial Space - bands of space extending

outward from the body; territorial space differs
from culture to culture
a = intimate <1.5’

b = personal 1.5-4’

c = social 4-12’ a
b
c
d = public >12’ d
 Proxemics: Seating Dynamics

Seating Dynamics - seating people in certain

positions according to the person’s purpose in
communication
X O X
O Communication
Cooperation

X O X O
Non-
Competition
Communication
O
 Examples of
Decoding Nonverbal Cues
He’s
unapproachable!
He’s angry! I’ll
stay out of
his way!

Boss breathes
Boss fails to acknowledge heavily &
employee’s greeting waves arms

I wonder what My opinion

he’s hiding? doesn’t count

No eye contact
while
communicating
Manager sighs deeply
SOURCE: Adapted from “Steps to Better Listening” by C. Hamilton and B. H. Kleiner. Copyright © February 1987. Reprinted with permission, Personnel Journal, all rights reserved.
New Technologies
for Communication

 Informational databases
 Electronic mail systems
 Voice mail systems
 Fax machine systems
 Cellular phone systems
 How Do New Technologies
Affect Behavior?

 Fast, immediate access to information

 Immediate access to people in power
 Instant information exchange across distance
 Makes schedules & office hours irrelevant
 May equalize group power
 May equalize group participation
 How Do New Technologies
Affect Behavior?
 Communication can become more impersonal—
interaction with a machine
 Interpersonal skills may diminish—less tact, less
graciousness
 Non-verbal cues lacking
 Alters social context
 Easy to become overwhelmed with information
 Encourages polyphasic activity
 Tips for Effective Use of New
Communication Technologies
Provide
social
interaction
opportunities

Is the Regularly
message disconnect
really from the
necessary? technology

Don’t
Provide
Strive for Build in assume
social
message feedback immediate
interaction
completeness opportunities opportunities
response