The Level of Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms Used by Selected Maritime Students of UPHSD-Las Pinas (Problem and its Settings)

8/11/2019 The Level of Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms Used by Selected Maritime Students of UPHSD-Las Pinas (Problem

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Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist, once said "life is not easy!" and

everyday, people encounter different problems and struggles and there are some

individuals who protect themselves from things that people do not want to think

or deal with and they use defense mechanisms. There are instances that one

feels threatened, overwhelmed or feel as if things are about to collapse and

these feelings are called anxiety.

According to L. Pervin and O. John (2001), Anxiety is such a painful state

that we are incapable of tolerating it for very long time. Each and every one of us

feels anxiety. Every day, people encounter different problems and struggles. So

they tend to separate their worlds in the fantasy or they will try to cover the

disappointment that they have just to forget the failure in reality. This separation

or covering up of anxiety is called defense mechanism. People tend to make

fantasies when things get worst in order to change their perspectives and worlds.

These are instances also that people deny the situation so that they may try to

forget the situation.

According to Sigmund Freud (18thcentury), anxiety is an unpleasant inner

state that people seek to avoid. Anxiety acts as a signal to the ego that the things


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are not going right. As a result, the ego then employs a defense mechanism to

help reduce these feelings of anxiety. In order to deal with anxiety, Freud

believed that defense mechanism helped shield the ego from the conflict created

by the id, superego and reality. (Pervin & John, 2001)

Boeree (2006) also cited in his book, Personality Theories,the ego deals

with the demands of reality, the id, and the superego as best as it can. But when

the anxiety becomes overwhelming, the ego must defend itself. It does so by

unconsciously blocking the impulses or distorting them into a more acceptable,

less threatening form. These techniques are called ego defense mechanisms.

The very reason why the researchers decided to go for this kind of research is

for them to understand how respondents choose what unconscious defense

mechanism to manifest to overcome certain uneasiness. The researchers

decided to conduct the study among Maritime students because, first, they have

the biggest number of populations throughout all the colleges in university. It may

strengthen this study and make the study more accurate. Second, the

respondents have a tendency to focus on their anxiety due to the nature of their

future occupation, since they will be working on a very secluded place, staying on

a ship for a long time. The researchers wanted to know if the aggression or

anxiety has something to do with how they react or what defense mechanism

they used to the tension that they feel.


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Theoretical Framework

The study was supported by a theory that was formulated by Sigmund

Freud. He stated that each individual is experiencing anxiety. Anxiety is formed

due to different problems, disappointments, and trials people undergo.

Unconsciously, people tend to develop ways to distort reality and exclude

feelings of awareness so that they may not feel anxious. In other words, people

try to fantasize or imagine new worlds in order to escape against anxiety. There

are different ways that people are omitting from the reality. The most common

defense mechanism is the projection. In this kind of defense mechanism, people

are attributing their own feelings to other people or objects. In other words, they

put the blame to others and not to themselves. Another defense mechanism is

the denial, wherein the confrontation with the problem is avoided by denying the

existence of the problem. Another defense mechanism is the isolation, wherein

people separate emotion from the content of memory. Reaction formation is also

included in the defense mechanism where, a person defends against expression

of an unacceptable impulse by only recognizing and expressing its opposite.

Rationalization also included in the defense mechanism wherein an individual is

dong an action, but the motive is not perceived. Another is repression, wherein

an idea or thought is dismissed from the consciousness. And lastly, sublimation

is a defense mechanism that diverts the expression of a desire from its

unacceptable form to one that is considered more socially acceptable (Pervin &

John, 2001).


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Level of Anxiety Defense Mechanisms

Projection

Denial

Displacement

Repression

Regression

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1.0: Conceptual paradigm of the study about the level of anxiety and the

different defense mechanisms.

The figure above illustrates the conceptual framework of the study. The

independent variables are the defense mechanisms, namely, projection, denial,

isolation, reaction formation, rationalization, repression, and sublimation. The

dependent variable pertains to different levels of anxiety. These two variables are

present to the students of College of Maritime of UPHSD.

College of Maritime Studentsin UPHSD

1. Age

2. Gender

3. Socio-economic

status

IVDV


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Statement of the Problem

The study will aim to determine the levels of anxiety and the defense

mechanisms of the selected students of Maritime Education of University of

Perpetual Help System DALTALas Pias. It purports to answer the following:

1. What is the personal profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1. age

1.2 gender, and

1.3 socio-economic status

2. What is the level of anxiety of the respondents according to their personal

variables?

3. What is the defense mechanism of the respondents in terms of their personal

variables?

3.1. displacement

3.2. projection

3.3. regression

3.4. repression, and

3.5. denial

4. What is the level of anxiety in terms of the defense mechanism of the

respondents?


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5. Is there a significant relationship between the level of anxiety and the defense

mechanisms of the respondents?

Hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between the level of anxiety and the

defense mechanism used by the selected students of College of Maritime

Education of the University of Perpetual Help System DALTALas Pias.

Significance of the study

This study is done for a purpose. This can help different people including;

Students. This study will help the students to have a better understanding of

how anxiety affects their lives as students, especially for College students, to

know the ways to control anxiety, and for them to learn the different defenses

that may manifest when anxiety overrule their being.

Parents. This study will help the parents and guardians to know how to guide

their children in bringing their anxieties and for people who wants knowledge or

information, to have sufficient information about anxiety and how it becomes

disorder. They can use this study as information so that they may know the

defense mechanisms their children use when they have anxiety.

Our Society. This study will help our society to know the differences of people,

to distinguish the personality of an individual, and to know how they can cope on


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their anxieties. Employers may use this study to know their subordinates

tendencies when pressures are present and how they can cope with it.

Future researchers. This study will help and give future researcher to gain

additional information for those that who will conduct the same study and to

generate interest among researchers to conduct studies about the levels of

anxiety and determine what the defense mechanisms are for those Maritime

Students. This may also serve as a guide in the search for reference.

Scope and Limitation

This study tries to identify the lavel of anxiety and the defense

mechanisms among students. It is applicable only to the students of College of

Maritime at the University of Perpetual Help System DALTALas Pias who are

currently enrolled during the school year 2013-2014 and 1stsemester of school

year 2014-2015. This study also focuses on a particular reference of thirty

percent (30%) of total population of College of Maritime Education students. It

aims to determine the anxiety and defense mechanism of respondents. Further,

the goal of this study is to find out if there is a significant relationship between

anxiety level and defense mechanism.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were operationally used in this research:


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Anxiety means a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about an

imminent event.

Defense mechanismis an automatic reaction of the body against the anxiety an

individual experiences.

Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought

or feeling did not exist.

Displacement is the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a

powerless substitute target. The target can be a person or an object that can

serve as a symbolic substitute. Someone who feels uncomfortable with their

sexual desire for a real person may substitute a fetish. Someone who is

frustrated by his or her superiors may go home and kick the dog, beat up a family

member, or engage in cross-burnings.

Projectionmeans possessing a feeling that is designed as socially unacceptable

and instead of facing it, that feeling or unconscious urge is seen in the actions

of other people

Regression means falling back into an early state of mental/physical

development seen as less demanding and safer

Repression is a mental process by which distressing thought, memories, or

impulses that may give rise to anxiety are excluded from consciousness and left

to operate in unconscious.

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The Level of Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms Used by Selected Maritime Students of UPHSD-Las Pinas (Problem and its Settings)