In psychology, overcompensation is one of the types of compensation when a person tries to unconsciously develop a quality in himself that he considers inferior, while telling everyone around him about his successes and trying to assert himself by humiliating other people. Overcompensation is based on an inferiority complex, which in most cases is formed in childhood and adolescence.
Let's find out the meaning of the term
From Latin - “compensation”. Compensation in psychology is the reanimation of the destroyed balance of mental and psychophysiological processes by reviving the opposite reflex or stimulus. The term “defense mechanisms” was introduced by the Austrian psychologist S. Freud in 1923.
Many experts believe that compensation in psychology is an autonomous model of protection from existing complexes. The individual will try to fill with triumph the area in which he felt inferior. From the position of compensation, the immorality of adolescents and their behavior with hostile illegal actions aimed against the individual are also analyzed.
Another demonstration of the defense mechanism will be the replenishment of unfulfilled desires and unrealized events through over-realization in other areas of life. For example, a frail, physically undeveloped person who is unable to fight back “with his fists” gains moral pleasure by humiliating his pursuer with the help of his sharp mind and erudition. People who use compensation as the most appropriate type of psychological defense, as a rule, are dreamers who are in search of an ideal in different areas of life.
This is nothing more than a protective mechanism of the psyche, which independently eliminates or replenishes negative character traits of a person. By resorting to this method, a person either compensates for negative characteristics or develops new ones. Let's say a short person suffering from this complex directs all his efforts to the status growth of his personality. Achieves this goal thanks to his high motivation.
What is a defense mechanism
The protective mechanism is a lever for preventing mental personality disorders. However, defense mechanisms are dual. On the one hand, they stabilize the inner world of the individual, that is, they establish a person’s relationship with himself, and on the other hand, they can destroy relationships with the outside world.
The purpose of protection is to prevent injury. The goal is to cope with strong negative emotions and maintain the individual's self-esteem. To do this, a restructuring of the system (hierarchy) of values takes place within the individual. These are backup ways for the brain to solve incoming problems. They turn on when the basic normal methods fail, and the problem is not recognized by the person himself.
Student and follower of S. Freud - Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler, like his colleague, believed that a child develops as a personality until the age of five. But contrary to Freud, he considered man in the context of social relations, from the very beginning classifying him as a social being. He believed that the social factor in the development of personality prevailed over biological instincts (as Freud believed). He viewed the individual as one with society.
The theory of compensation and overcompensation is his main work, according to which compensation in psychology is the formation of an individual as a personality, through overcoming inferiority by making up for deficiencies. Thanks to compensation, he believed, it was possible to compensate for missing character traits, real or imaginary mental illness.
Signs
Overcompensation has three main characteristics:
- Egocentrism. A person is absolutely confident that he is right, does not recognize any other opinion coming from others and tries to convince everyone of the correctness of his thoughts and actions.
- Arrogance. A person tries to show others that he is better than them, because he does a tremendous amount of work on himself and achieves “unprecedented” success.
- Boasting. An overcompensating person tries to tell everyone he meets about his achievements, exaggerating and embellishing the real state of affairs.
A person with overcompensation most often feels comfortable only when surrounded by those people over whom he manages to rise above and assert himself at their expense.
What is the point of the theory?
It lies in a person’s readiness and desire to overcome his inferiority with the help of overcompensation. There is a possibility of several outcomes for this type of defense, the outcome will depend on the level of development of the sense of community.
A child who grew up in a healthy psychological family and was not deprived of love, care and attention will gain a developed sense of community. In adulthood, he will improve himself in order to benefit society.
If a sense of community is not developed, overcompensation will be aimed at achieving dominance and power, with the goal of subjugating society through the use of aggression and other anti-moral norms of behavior and means. As an example, A. Adler presented the activities of A. Hitler and N. Bonaparte.
Let's give an example of compensation in psychology. “Since I can’t draw, I’ll put all my efforts into a new business where it works out better, and I’ll start studying chemistry.”
Causes
The leading source of overcompensation is an inferiority complex. A person who feels that he is not good enough at something tries to prove to himself and others the opposite. The inferiority complex, in turn, comes from two groups of reasons:
- Really existing physical disabilities. This can be either a disability or less significant problems: insufficiently straight teeth, birthmarks, excess body weight. They are not causes of overcompensation in themselves, but arise when there is criticism of these problems from others and as a result of the person’s own feelings about this. For example, if a child at school is teased for being too short, he, trying to prove his worth, goes to the basketball section and becomes a professional athlete in this field.
- Imaginary flaws. An example of this is, for example, a girl’s feeling of being fat, if in fact she has a normal physique according to medical and physical indicators. Such shortcomings also usually arise as a result of criticism from outsiders or comparison of oneself with other people not in one's favor.
Closely related to the inferiority complex, the reason for the development of overcompensation is the shortcomings of family upbringing. Authoritarian parents, who constantly make comments and focus on the child’s shortcomings from an early age, contribute to the formation of an inferiority complex, and, as a result, overcompensation.
The same story is found in families where a child is overprotected or rejected: the child grows up unsure of himself, at an older age begins to understand this and overcompensates, for example, becomes aggressive or too risky, constantly focusing the attention of others on his “improved” qualities.
The formation of overcompensation is also influenced by people who are authoritative for a person. For example, a girl reacts absolutely calmly to statements from others that she has trouble pronouncing the sound “r” until her loved one tells her about it. From this moment on, she may begin to worry and overcompensate, for example, by going to work on the radio to prove that she is very wealthy even with such speech, and will try to tell others as often as possible how great she is doing.
Overcompensation can also occur against the background of exposure to stereotypes. For example, a person grew up in a family of artists and is sure that every self-respecting individual should be able to draw. He, having no real abilities, tries to develop them in himself, doing enormous work, telling everyone how wonderful he paints pictures. At the same time, he, for example, has excellent hearing and could be a musician, but his focus on visual activity prevents him from fully developing the talent that he really has.
Kinds
Compensation in psychology is the replenishment, smoothing and formation of destroyed or underdeveloped functions, the reorganization of preserved options for the renovation of disturbed ones, the acquisition in the process of formation and learning of ways of activity and behavior that will contribute to getting used to society and merging with it.
There are two types of it:
- Systemic. When one component has lost its function, and the rest take over it. For example, restoration of speech in the event of its local absence or impairment is at the biological level.
- Intersystem. Here there is a breakdown in the functioning of the entire system, and the remaining components take over its functions. The functional system is rebuilt, and new elements from other nervous structures are included in the interaction.
Damage to any organ or function in tandem with the body’s ongoing vital activity indicates the well-coordinated work of compensatory mechanisms. In this situation, life continues in new uncomfortable conditions simultaneously with the compensation process.
What is overcompensation
The term “overcompensation” was coined by the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler. Literally this word is translated as “overcompensation.”
Overcompensation is an exaggerated manifestation of a quality that causes a feeling of inferiority and allows one to exalt oneself over others. This is often an unconscious mechanism not controlled by a person. And sometimes the person himself admits that he wants to prove, take revenge, surpass. Examples of overcompensation:
- the intrusiveness and talkativeness of a shy person;
- sexual promiscuity of a girl who is afraid of close relationships;
- demonstrative and inappropriate behavior of an insecure person;
- aggression of a passive and weak person;
- risky behavior of an indecisive person;
- the desire of a frail guy to gain muscle mass in order to “heap on” the offenders.
With overcompensation, a person puts in too much effort to overcome his real or fictitious defect (complex), which results in its opposite. Moreover, the last, extreme degree of opposite. For example, a person who feels dependent and dependent turns into a tyrant.
Overcompensation that gets out of control harms the individual. It sends girls to the plastic surgeon's operating table, forces men to constantly risk their lives to confirm their masculinity, etc.
There are also positive manifestations of overcompensation. Those who were afraid of heights become rock climbers, and those who were afraid of dogs become tiger trainers. Or a child, bullied by classmates, becomes an outstanding scientist.
Let's talk about the main categories of special psychology
The latter studies the principles of psychological development and activity of people with mental and physiological disabilities. So, the concept of compensation in psychology is as follows. This is the process of replenishing existing disrupted or underdeveloped functions, with the help of intact ones or reorganization of partially destroyed ones. Let's talk about the tandem of compensation and correction in special psychology.
Let's define correction. This procedure for editing various transformed human functions refers to external influences. It implies a certain method of influencing an individual in order to correct defects. Her methods are used to restore various dysfunctions of the body.
Examples of compensation
The simplest and most understandable example of compensation is connected, no matter how funny it may sound, with food. When a person does not consume certain foods, for example, while on a diet, the body demands to replace them with something else, something that contains the nutrients it needs. So, if you really want ice cream, you lack calcium and tryptophan. You can get them from chicken, rabbit or turkey. An irresistible desire to eat chocolate indicates a magnesium deficiency. You can replenish it with buckwheat, pine nuts, and lettuce.
Let's move on to examples related to people. Imagine a skinny teenage boy. People laugh at him because of his appearance. But he doesn't rush to the gym to pump up. Instead, he does what he does best: play chess. And he will definitely achieve success in this direction. But physical defects will still remind you of themselves, which will ultimately lead to the development of neuroses.
Let's take the same frail teenager. In the previous example we were talking about compensation. If overcompensation turns on, he will direct all his strength to eliminate the deficiency, will intensively engage in sports, wrestling, in order to then take revenge on those who teased and offended him.
Compensation is cases when, instead of establishing relationships with others, a person gets a dog. Having a pet is, of course, good. But if you communicate only with him, then over time you can lose your communication skills with people and end up alone.
Another example of compensation is career. It replaces family, entertainment, and friends. There is some benefit to this. A person achieves success and recognition in society. But look from the other side. Over time, the body of workaholics simply gets tired. And no job or career will give you a feeling of real happiness.
About Tapering
Tapering is a time period before a competition, when the load is projected in such a way as to eliminate the stress accumulated during the preparation period and ensure access to supercompensation in the required time period.
In other words, a sustained reduction in physical activity at a specific point in time before a competition reduces the resulting stress of everyday training and improves athletic performance.
Energy is restored and toxins are removed from the body.
As a result of tapering, the body's capabilities increase, despite the tedious process. In this regard, the level of sports achievements increases.
Ways to speed up recovery
After the workout, there is pain and a feeling of congestion in the muscles. This is due to the accumulation of lactic acid in muscle tissue.
This is a breakdown product and in order to remove it from the body as quickly as possible, it is necessary to speed up recovery.
It can be passive, when you rest after training, or active. Active recovery includes massage and light exercise.
How to recover properly
The recovery process goes through four phases:
- Fast recovery. ends thirty minutes after the end of the training process. It is important to replenish glucose and mineral levels. After training, drink mineral water without adding gas.
- Slow recovery . When nutrient levels are replenished, the body repairs damaged muscle fibers. At the same time, protein synthesis begins, so food must contain the required amount of amino acids.
- Supercompensation is an important stage in achieving results. The body begins to intensively consume carbohydrates and amino acids in order to restore the required amount of muscle tissue and provide the body with energy for intense exercise. At this stage the next training process needs to be carried out. After the supercompensation stage, the body becomes stronger to withstand a powerful load.
- Delayed recovery. It begins immediately after the end of supercompensation, when you missed your workout. Therefore, you need to strictly follow the training schedule, otherwise progress will slow down. The point of this recovery stage is that the body is restored to its usual state, which was before the gym.
Literature
- Belyaev, I.
A. Limitation and compensation of the abilities and needs of an integral human being / I. A. Belyaev // Bulletin of the Orenburg State University. - 2009. - No. 2 (96), February. — P. 24-30.
| Defense mechanisms of the psyche |
| Primary |
This page was last edited on November 27, 2021 at 12:19 pm. Sources used:
- https://psychologist.tips/3115-giperkompensatsiya-chto-za-reaktsiya-v-psihologii.html
- https://bodymaster.ru/training/superkompensatsiya
- https://psychology.academic.ru/5084/hypercompensation
- https://vocabulary.ru/termin/giperkompensacija.html
- https://wiki2.org/ru/compensation_(psychology)
