Seven-year-old Harper always liked going to see Dr. Hernandez at the pediatric clinic because she would give her a lollipop. Then one day, Dr. Hernandez came to Harper’s school to administer flu shots. Injections never bothered Harper, and she was happy to see Dr. Hernandez at her school and get a lollipop. But many of her classmates were frightened before getting the shot and cried afterwards. Now, Harper feels afraid whenever she has to see Dr. Hernandez for a checkup or when she is sick. Which of the following mechanisms likely led to Harper developing this phobia?

Psychological projection is a defense mechanism that happens to us when a conflict arises between our unconscious feelings(what we feel) and our conscious believe( what we believe). In other to help ourself out of this conflict we attribute a wrong impression to someone or something else.

It all started when seven year old Harper saw her friends crying before and after seeing Dr. Hernandez, she felt emotional seeing her friends cry, her unconscious feeling about what Dr. Hernandez does to her friends to make them cry, began to battle with her believe about what Dr. Hernandez is doing. She has known Dr. Hernandez as a lollipop friend and never got frightened whenever she is to be administered injection and drugs, or checkup. But because her friends at school cried before and after the shot and checkup she also became afraid, because she has passed down the conflict between her unconscious feeling (the cries of her friends) and her conscious belief ( what she know about Dr. Hernandez and his practice) to the practice done by the doctor, to be a harmful effect to the body, which made her friends at school to cry.