Defense and Coping Mechanism of the Junior and Senior High School

Students of Our Lady of the Pillar College-San

Manuel Incorporated towards their Academic
Task School Year 2019-2020: Basis for
Developing Intervention Program

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A research presented to the

Faculty of Basic Education Department
Our Lady of the Pillar College–San Manuel Inc.
Dist. 3, San Manuel, Isabela

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In partial fulfilment of the Requirements in

Practical Research 1 (Qualitative Method)

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Mark Anthony C. Guarin

Eloysius Jay C. Garen
Tracy Ann S. Parungao
Havee Ger S. Garcia
Raymond T. Antonio
Marlon Marinduque
Vic Gem A. Zamora
Justin C. Santos

March 2020
 CHAPTER 1

The Problem and its Background

Introduction

Defense Mechanism is defined as the behaviors of people use

to be apart from disagreeable thoughts, events, and actions. It

comes from psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, a

psychological perspective of personality that sees personality as

the interaction between the three (3) components; Id, Ego,

Superego(Legg T., PhD 2019). Coping Mechanism is the adaptation

to environmental stress that is based on conscious or unconscious

choice and that enhances control over behavior or gives

psychological comfort. It is how ego respond or decide what to do

or what to act in a certain way on every situation may encounter.

According to (Waqas A., Rehman A., Mahmod N., ) ego defense

mechanism are unconscious psychological processes that help an

individual cope with anxiety resulting from a stressful internal

or external environment. And Coping mechanisms can help people

adjust to stressful events while helping them maintain their

emotional well-being.

There are 10 defense mechanism today defined by the

scientist (Karan et. al., 1981; Morgan, 2004), Denial,

Repression, Projection, Identification, Regression,

Intellectualisation, Reaction-formation, Displacement,

Sublimation, and Fantasy-formation dreaming. Students behave in a

classroom affects how much and how well they learn. Even one

student acting out can interrupt all the students’ learning. It’s

the teacher’s job to manage the classroom in a manner that

reinforces learning. Students need to learn that there are

natural rewards and certain consequences that come from certain

types of behavior. Some students respond to receiving rewards for

good behavior, such as nice feedbacks and conduct awards.

Filipino students’ attitudes on learning determine their

ability and willingness to learn. If negative attitudes are not

altered, a student is unlikely to continue his education beyond

what is required. Student attitudes on learning, good or bad,

affect their outlook toward learning throughout life. Their

attitude towards learning affected not only their amount of

education but their desire for education. Attitude is a learned

behavior and, as such is highly susceptible to change. Behavior

of students reflects to their academic performance and

achievements. Academic achievement never devised without an

effort in form of knowledge or form skills (Maulida and Kariyam,

2017). Students are responsible for their own action and being

guided only by the school administrators. In this study,

student’s defense and techniques or their coping mechanism will

be identified. Thus, this study is conducted.

Conceptual Framework

This study will adopt the study of (Yazon A., Ang-Manaig K.,

Tesoro J., 2018) “Coping Mechanism and Academic Performance Among

Filipino Undergraduate Students”. The research is a descriptive-

correlational study that examined the coping mechanisms and its

relationship to academic performance among Filipino undergraduate

students.

Research Paradigm

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework which will serve as

guide in doing this study.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 Profile of the  Data  Defense and

Students Gathering Coping
- Age, Sex,  Survey Mechanism of
Grade Level Questionnaire the Junior
 Data Analysis and Senior
 Defense High School
Mechanism  Interpretatio
Students
n
performs by the 
students towards
Academic
Performance
 Coping Mechanism
performs by the
student towards
Academic
Performance

FEEDBACK
Figure 1.Research Paradigm of the Study
Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the defense and coping

mechanism of Junior and Senior High School Students in terms of

their Academic Performance.

Specifically, this study aimed to answer the following

questions and statement:

1. What is the profile of Junior and Senior High School? In

terms of:

a. Name

b. Age

c. Sex

d. Grade Level

2. What is the defense mechanism performs by the students in

terms of displacement, denial, repression, projection,

regression?

3. What is the coping mechanism of the student in terms of

social support, positive Reappraisal, planful Problem-

Solving

4. What program is to develop to help the students towards

academic task?
Significance of the Study

The research is deemed significant and useful to the

following:

School Administrators. This study will serve as a basis in

setting rules and adjust counseling base on the student’s

behavior.

Teachers. For them to be a responsible for what to adjust on

teaching method for the students to be able to cope up on the

lessons.

Guidance Counselor.

Students. For them to cope with the lesson

Future researchers. This may applicable for the paper of the

next researchers who aims to study the same topic or may be

slightly similar in defense mechanism of students.

Scope and Delimitation

The researcher will use a survey questionnaire for the

students who are the Junior and Senior High School. This study

aims to evaluate how the students cope up under academic

performance and what defense mechanism and coping mechanism they

performed in every situations in their academic tasks.

Definition of Terms

Defense Mechanism. a psychological feature helps students to

reduce anxiety and how did they use it to cope up on academic

matters.

Academic Performance. a level which the student attained to

their educational life.

Ego. a part of student’s mind that mediates between good and

bad habit.

Displacement. Repressed motives and emotions directing them

from the actual objects to other objects.

Denial. This is the defense mechanism that students couldn’t

face the reality or admit the truth.

Repression. A defense mechanism that a

Regression. A defense mechanism where the student

demonstrate childish attitudes.

 Chapter 2

Review of the Related Literature and Studies

In this part of the study related literatures and related

studies about the defense mechanism and coping mechanism were

enlisted.

Related Literature

Foreign

According to (Fehr, 2000), defensive coping mechanism is

known as Ego Defense Mechanisms or as subconscious efforts for

adaptation. Ways for defensive coping are sub-conscious efforts

to protect the self, to avoid any damage to ego or to decrease

anxiety and tension. According to (Givon and Court, 2009), coping

strategies defers from each individual, using maladaptive coping

that result to negative effect or adaptive coping that result to

an optimistic effect.

According to (Shahmohammadi., 2011) stated that when a

person suffers negative emotion they are indeed dealing with

stress mostly the male students are likely braver than female.

According to(Mate, 2014) he said that stress could be negative

effect to work performance, productivity and physical health,

when coping does not properly address to stress. On the other

hand(O’Brien 2014) when individual would not cope up to problem

one may suffer sickness that will lead to suicidal attempts.

According to (Khan, 2013) the relationship between coping

skills and Grade Point Average (GPA) was not strong. On the other

hand (Kadhiravan, Kumar, 2012) revealed that coping strategies

can help under graduate students to enhance their academic

performance.

According to (Aun et.al, 2011) coping skills improve class

attendance, participation, persistence even when faced with

setbacks or failure in general, and arm them with stronger more

resilient self who can lead to a much more positive learning

experience. Similarly (Sullivan,2010) academic coping strategies

helped under graduate students to performed in their academic

through academic coping strategies factors i.e. approach,

avoidance, and social support.

According to(Yasian, Dzulkifli,2009) accadem9c coping

strategies was also design to help under graduate students to

cope their life those that include physical well-being,

emotional, spiritual, and psychological well-being.

Defenses can be arranged on an immaturity-maturity ego

continuum, corresponding to a continuum from maladaptive to

adaptive: immature, image-distorting, neurotic, mature

(Vaillant, 1977).
 According to (Cramer, 1998), to distinguish between defense

mechanism and coping skills, suggested “that the term

‘adaptational process’ should be used to refer to the overarching

process of responding to adversity” Under this umbrella,

unconscious responses will be deemed defenses and conscious

processes deemed coping skills.

Local

Blona (2005) claims that students experience stress since

some are trying to cope with the demands of adapting to a new

living environment, new peers, academic pressure, and sexual

concerns. Being in college can also put financial stress on the

students and their families. These situations can leave them with

trembling hands, tense, muscles, migraine, headache, and multiple

other symptoms of stress performances or reduce the student to

ineffectiveness.

According to (Lazarus, 1988) there are 8 types of

coping strategies which include planful problem solving, seeking

social support, confrontive coping, distancing, self-control,

escape-avoidance, accepting responsibility, and positive

reappraisal. These 8 ways of coping were further categorized as

active coping strategies and passive coping strategies.

Related Studies

Foreign

According to (Shahmohammadi N., 2011), Students’ coping with

Stress at high school level particularly at 11 th and 12th grade.

Stress and coping with stress are phenomena closely intertwined

with human life. They relate to all minor and major events in

life. Even in our day to day life, stress is the topic of many

conversations, people talk about the stress of balancing home and

work life, the stress of being hard pressed for time, of living

in a mechanical society, dealing with a crying child, getting

through traffic jam, etc,.

On the study of (Chambres., 2014), he compared the coping

and perceived stress among students by first generation and

continuing generation status, race or ethnicity and gender.

This study assessed how different population cope with stress

and how diverse student population perceive their general level

of stress and how they coped with stress. Participants were

from six racial or ethnic groups which included 1,085 UG

psychology students from two Southeast Universities. From this

research, it was found to have the most significant

relationship with both coping and perceived stress was Gender.

According to (Gökdag, 2015) she founds out on her study that

the most frequently used especially by the female participants

were “repression”, “denial”, and “displacement”. On the other

hand, the male participants use the mechanism “projection”.

(Nyatsanza T., Mtezo J., 2013), suggested that Students

should be taught how to recognise, analyse, and cope with

stressful events.

Local

On the study of (De Leon, Balila, 2014) The “Filipino

Adolescents’ Coping Strategies: A Confirmatory Analysis” the

result of the study showed for dominant factors: Utilization of

instrumental and emotional support, use of substance, planning

and action taking, and use of humor.

According to (Rilveria J., 2018), People experience stress

throughout their lifespan. At home, in school, at work, or in any

situation when dealing with people and with life in general,

everyone has an everyday stressful encounter. Such experiences of

stress can be physical or mental ranging from mundane to life-

threatening effects on the body and the mind.

According to (Yazon A., Ang-Manaig K., Tesoro J., 2018),

Filipino students need to cope with academic and personal anxiety

through active and passive coping strategies. Parents need to

nurture the child in a supportive home environment. When students

are in their second home, teacher must continuously provide

conductive learning environment to the students to ensure better

academic achievement.

According to (Perino J. et.al, 2016), Graduating Senior High

School students have encountered different levels of stress and

its corresponding coping mechanism in terms of physical,

emotional, and mental. Stress is not manifested physically. This

suggest that the students stress do not give impact to the

respondents physically.

According to( Abecia M., 2017),coping mechanism can be a

simple way of mitigating the stress but it is complicated due to

individuals having a varied problem situations.

According to (Paren R., 2016), Coping occurs in response to

psychological stress and is usually triggered by changes in an

effort to maintain health and emotional well-being. There are

many coping styles that people use, and some may prove more

effective than others, depending on the nature of the stressful

situation and the person who is employing them.

 Chapter 3

Research Methods

Research Instrument

The study will be conducted at Our Lady of the Pillar

College- San Manuel, Incorporated. It will use a descriptive-

qualitative and a survey method using a questionnaire to obtain

the data from the students regarding to their Defense and Coping

Mechanism towards their academic task.

Respondents of the Study

The identified subjects of this study are the Junior and

Senior High School students at Our Lady of the Pillar College-San

Manuel Incorporated.

Data Gathering Instrument

The researchers will use a survey questionnaire regarding

the defense and coping mechanism of students on their academic

performance.

Data Gathering Procedure

The data gathering procedure started with the development

and validation guide questions the survey was created using

suitable questions modified from related research. In the

questionnaire, Likert scale will be used to determine the Defense

mechanism and coping mechanism performs by the students.

Data Analysis

The following tools to be used in analyzing the data are:

Weighted Mean. The descriptive statistical tool be used in

this study is the Weighted mean.

Scale. Scales will be used in this study to get the

appropriate response of the said respondents.

4- always 3- often 2- sometimes 1- never

Questionnaire

This survey assesses the Defense Mechanisms’ of Our Lady of

Pillar College-San Manuel Inc. Junior and Senior High School
towards their academic performance. Response shall be treated
with utmost confidentiality. Thank you very much.

Instructions: Please answer the properly the following questions:

I. Profile of the Students

a) What is your age? ________

b) What is your sex?
[ ] Female [ ] Male
c) What is your grade level? _______

II. Defense mechanism performs by the students

Legends: 4-always 3-often 2-sometimes 1-never

Item 4 3 2 1
Displacement
1. I’m expressing my
concentration by doing another
task.
2. Instead of doing first our
activity I open up my phone
and opens applications
3. I’m in a bad mood and i
criticizes my classmates
Denial
1. I used to deny things that I
actually did.
2. I used to deny if there is an
activity or assignment that I
didn’t do that is given by our
teacher.
3. In every difficult task, I
refused to get too serious
about it.
Repression
1. I always avoid bad thoughts
when I’m inside of my
classroom.
2. I choose to set aside my
problems by talking to my
classmate.
 3. When bad thoughts appeared in
my mind I usually read my book
or do my assignments to lessen
these thoughts.
Projection
1. I can’t focus when there’s
someone discussing in front of
me.
2. I do everything to avoid
unwanted thoughts especially
when I’m in class hours.
3. I can’t easily understand the
lesson because my mind is
occupied of another scenario.
Regression
1. when I can’t focus on
activities I usually bite my
nails.
2. I’m easily distracted even if
there’s someone who discuss in
front of me
3. I always talk uncontrollably
when reciting in front of the
class (e.g. used “ahh” “hmm”)

III. Coping Strategies of the Students

Legend: 1- Always 2- Often 3- Sometimes 4- Never

Items 1 2 3 4
Seeking Social Support
1. I talked to someone who could
do something
2. I asked advice from a relative
or friend I respected.
3. I accepted sympathy and
understanding from
someone.
4. I talked to someone about how
I was feeling.
Positive Reappraisal
5. I rediscovered what is
important in life.
6. I pray
7. I was inspired to do something
 creative about the
problem.
8. I changed or grew as a person.
Planful Problem-Solving
9. I came up with a couple of
different solutions to the
problem.
10. I just concentrated on
what I had to do next – step
by step.
11. I changed something so
things would turn out all
right.
12. I knew what had to be
done, so I doubled my
efforts to make things work.