Control processes and defense mechanisms

Defense-mechanism theory and control-process theory are related psychodynamic approaches to explaining and classifying how people ward off emotional upsets. Although both theories explain defensive maneuvers in the same motivational terms, each defines categories different1y. Classic categories define defense mechanisms at a relatively macroscopic level, whereas control-process theory aims at relatively microgenetic analysis of how cognitive maneuvers-involving what is thought, how it is thought, and how it is organized-may generate defensive states. The theories are not contradictory, but they are focused on different levels of observation; it is useful to compare how these classifications are applied to specific case material.