mechanism identification. People who use identification associate themselves
with powerful and successful individuals. For example, a young man might
think about his association with a military leader or successful athlete. By un-
consciously identifying with powerful others, we are said to fend off feelings
of inadequacy and helplessness. Moreover, psychoanalysts argue that identifica-
tion plays a particularly important role in the development of gender identity.
Young men are said to identify with their fathers, whereas young women iden-
tify with their mothers as they develop gender-related characteristics. Thus,when one ’s masculinity or femininity is threatened, the ego is likely to turn to
identification to defend against the resulting anxiety.
To test this prediction, the investigator analyzed participants ’stories for
three TAT cards. The students then completed a short personality test, one
presumably measuring their masculinity and femininity. Shortly thereafter the
students were given bogus feedback on the test. Half the men were told theyhad scored high in masculinity. However, the other half were told they scored
high in femininity. Similarly, half the women were told they were feminine
and half that they were masculine. The students were then asked to providethree more stories from another set of TAT cards.
How did the participants respond to the threatening test feedback? As
shown in Figure 4.1, men receiving the bogus feedback had a particularlystrong emotional reaction. As predicted, they reacted to the threatening infor-
mation by resorting to more identification. The use of identification was par-
ticularly strong for men who considered themselves highly masculine. In other
words, to ward off this overt challenge to their sense of masculinity, the men
unconsciously identified with powerful others, presumably masculine men.
That the students became defensive in this study was illustrated well by the
reaction of one male participant. When asked how he felt after being told he
was feminine, he replied, “I didn ’t feel angry. ”Of course, no one had sug-
gested that he was.
345Identiﬁcation Use
Masculine 
Feedback
ConditionFeminine 
Feedback
ConditionAfterBefore
2
FIGURE 4.1 Men ’s Use of Identification as a Function of Feedback
Source: Adapted from Cramer (1998b).Defense Mechanisms 77