Health psychology/Defence mechanisms · Immature

Regression

What it means

Reverting to an earlier developmental stage of functioning under stress.

Worked example

A hospitalised child resumes bedwetting or thumb-sucking.

In the exam

A previously toilet-trained 5-year-old, admitted to hospital, starts wetting the bed and demanding a bottle.

What settles it

Regression returns to earlier developmental behaviour. It is a response to current stress, not an attribution (projection) or a flip (reaction formation).

Classically confused with

Acting out

Source: AMBOSS