Reaction Formation Psychology

There are numerous psychological theories which could be applied to this situation to explain why Dave acted so strangely. Dave’s boisterous behavior around this group of new peers could be attributed to reaction formation. Reaction formation is one of the many defense mechanisms which Freud theorized as strategies to deflect anxiety through mentally altering reality. This defense mechanism is when a person’s ego unconsciously performs actions opposite from their internal feelings. In this scenario, Dave is most likely feeling uncomfortable and nervous, as he is a new student at this school. Because he does not want to embarrass himself by acting shy and awkward in front of his new peers, his ego subconsciously causes him to act loud,
Numerous psychologists have further theorized and have gone on to identify thousands of possible traits to describe personality. In contrast to the aforementioned reaction formation theory, Dave could have gone up to his new classmates simply because of his personality traits. Perhaps he is just a very confident, outgoing and sociable individual, as he recited “a loud, funny story” amongst a group of people who he does not know well at all. Dave may also have an impulsive and aggressive personality, as he sits right down with his new peers and takes French fries from someone’s plate. The reason why Dave “gobbles French fries” off of someone else’s plate could be because he gets distracted in telling his story, and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs takes over. The humanist psychologist theorized an individual’s personality develops by gradually meeting a series of five needs, which he called a hierarchy, as you must accomplish the lower-levels before moving up to another. The first needs which must be satisfied are physiological ones, a human’s primal needs for survival, such as food, water, and sleep. After this, humans need to achieve a sense of safety, as in housing,
At this level, a person has acceptance for him/her and others in society, and can accept the facts of life. Thus, as Dave was trying to tell a story and impress this new group of people, he was in the process of accomplishing his need for love and belonging. Before he could attempt to accomplish this, his physiological need of food had to be met first, which is why he started eating his someone’s French fries unknowingly. Like in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the drive-reduction theory has to do with the meeting of physiological needs. In this theory, an aroused state is sparked by a physiological need, driving a person to have it met. The goal is to reduce a physiological need in order to return the body to a state of homeostasis, which is keeping your internal status stable. In this scenario, Dave clearly in an aroused stated, motivating him to vanquish his hunger, as he not only eats, but gobbles someone’s French fries with, disregarding social graces. In addition to drive-reduction, humans are motivated by incentives. Incentives are positive or negative stimuli which either attract or repel people. Incentives are learned results to actions. Good tasting food has notoriously been a positive incentive used