KnowraDefense mechanismDefense mechanismA trait or behavior that reduces an organism’s risk of injury or death from predators, parasites, or other threats.BriefConnectCamouflage: Coloration, patterning, or form that makes an organism harder to detect in its surroundings. Concealment prevents an attacker from noticing a potential target.Predation: An interaction in which one organism captures and consumes another organism. Predation is a major source of the danger defenses reduce.Müllerian mimicry: A form of mimicry in which two or more harmful species share warning signals. Shared warning patterns reinforce predator avoidance of defended species.Evolutionary arms race: Reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species as each adapts to the other. Predators and prey can continually counter one another’s adaptations.Aposematism: The use of conspicuous signals to warn predators that an organism is dangerous, toxic, or unpalatable. Warning signals deter attacks before predators make contact.Predator–prey interaction: An ecological relationship in which a predator hunts and consumes prey. The traits of attackers and targets shape each other’s defenses.Batesian mimicry: A form of mimicry in which a harmless species resembles a harmful or unpalatable one. A harmless mimic borrows the protective reputation of a defended model.Cost of defense: The reduction in growth, reproduction, or other performance caused by producing or maintaining a defense. Resources spent on protection may be unavailable for other functions.Mimicry: An evolved resemblance between organisms or between an organism and an object that alters interactions with other species. Resemblance can mislead predators about a target’s identity or danger.Natural selection: The process by which heritable traits become more or less common through differences in survival and reproduction. It can spread inherited traits that improve survival under attack.Show all 21Linked from 12 pagesAnna FreudBroader topic: She classified defenses as central operations of the ego.PsychoanalysisRelated: Defenses are proposed ways the ego manages conflict and anxiety.Identification (psychology)Narrower topic: Some forms of identification operate as defenses that manage anxiety or threat.CopingCompared with: Defense mechanisms are typically described as unconscious, unlike deliberate coping strategies.Psychodynamic psychotherapyBroader topic: Identifying defenses helps explain how painful feelings remain outside awareness.Object relations theoryRelated: Defenses such as splitting organize experience of self and others in the theory.Projection (psychology)Narrower topic: Projection belongs to this broader family of processes that manage psychological conflict.Ego psychologyBroader topic: Defense mechanisms are central ways the ego manages conflict and protects functioning.Show all 12