While sitting in her room, Kayla is upset that she didn't pass the final exam for her major subject. She worries that her parents will scold her for failing her exam. She says, "This is my friend's fault. She always forces me to accompany her to the mall. This is all her fault, not mine." But deep inside, she knows that it is her fault because she happily accompanies her to the mall. But she just couldn't admit it. Most of the teenagers feel this way; they refuse to feel responsible for their own actions. In this case, people resort to defense mechanism if they find it hard to cope with reality.
Like in the example, Kayla refuses to admit that it is her fault that she failed her final exam. She tries to blame her friend because she thinks that if she doesn't have to deal with it, the problem would just go away. Kayla's response to the distressing thought (failing the exam) is called defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are described as a means of distracting ourselves from the unpleasant thoughts, feelings and anxiety. It is a coping mechanism that people use to help reduce tension and stress. The purpose of the defense mechanism is to protect oneself from the negative thoughts and to provide protection from a situation which one cannot cope. People use defense mechanism to help them alter or distort reality until they can handle the stressful situation more directly. .
There are many kinds of defense mechanisms. Denial is one of the common defense mechanism. Denial is used when someone claims and believes that the truth to be actually false. For example, a woman has been diagnosed with lung cancer but she believes that she only has bronchitis. But sometimes denying the facts is much than facing them. It may give the person hope and he/she may gradually accept the truth. Displacement is another defense mechanism and it is defined as a redirection of one's emotions to a substitute target.