The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

The Unconscious Expression of Ego Defenses:
Increasing Self-Knowledge for the Research Administrator
Elizabeth Holmes Ph.D., ABPP
700 St. George Barber Rd.
Davidsonville, MD 21035
Author’s Note
The author gratefully acknowledges dialogue with two SRA Northeast Section members concerning
the content and development of this paper: Associate Dean Sharon McCarl and Dr. Edward
Gabriele. For questions and further dialogue concerning the context of this paper, the author can
be reached as above.
Abstract
As a psychologist reflecting on numerous conversations and consultation with individual SRA
members, a pattern of common questions about human behavior comes to mind. This paper attempts
to assist research administrators to understand and have compassion for themselves and
others when under stressful conditions. When under extreme stress, a person’s psychological
balance will shift and less mature defenses emerge. Defense mechanisms are mostly unconscious,
start early in life, protect the ego against pressure, and gratify the ego with reduced anxiety. We are
all vulnerable to the unconscious use of defensive maneuvers. Becoming consciously aware of our
preferred unconscious defensive tactics is the first and most important step towards improving the
way we cope with anxiety under stressful conditions. This self-knowledge is critical for the professional
development research administrators bring to the contributions they make to the research
programs, institutions and investigators whom they lead and serve.
Introduction
As a psychologist reflecting on numerous conversations and consultation with individual SRA
members a pattern of common questions about human behavior comes to mind. Why are people
so defensive when they receive stressful (bad) news? Is being defensive normal? How much defensiveness
is healthy? What are the defense mechanisms? Is one ego defense better than another?
This paper will attempt to address these five questions with the intention of helping SRA members
to understand and have compassion for themselves and others when under stressful conditions.
Question 1
Papers
The first question – Research administrators who feel caught in the middle of multiple dilemmas
often ask the question, “What is stress?” They tell me about the competing demands of feeling responsible
to and for the institutions they work in, the investigators they review research proposals
for, and the research subjects, both human and animal, involved in those studies.
The term stress is derived from the Latin word “strictus” (Auerbach and Gramling 1998). In the
past the term stress has been used to encompass both a stimulus event and a response to that event
(Keefe, 1988). Today, stress can be conceived of as the changes within people as they are in a situation
that they determine to interfere with their well-being. These changes include physical, psychological,
and behavioral components. The circumstances, which provoke a stress response, are
termed “stressors.” Coping responses vary from person-to-person and from situation-to-situation.
Coping skills or abilities are our attempts to adjust to or manage the physiological and emotional
aspects of our perceived stress.
2005 Symposium Proceedings Book 123