4.1.4. Me-Ness

Students experience tension between the identity needs of belonging and of uniqueness. The push and pull between wanting to retain individuality, while wanting to be part of the group, was in particular coped with by emphasising me-ness. Through me-ness, students cope with identity transition, as is seen in a student's denial of personal change: "Looking at my framework of reference when I started the programme, I could not really say that much has changed with regards to my view My frame of reference is still focused on the individual but not excluding the group and organisational factors" (P5). Similarly, P1 notes that she also does not require much personal change and therefore does not see the need for the task of self-reflection: "Reflecting on my personal frame of reference is not something that I usually do, and I am not sure whether I will ever become in the habit of doing so. I like to think that I have a degree of self-awareness". In this way, students resist the task of self-reflection, and in doing so, they are resisting identity work by highlighting their inner strength and adequacy. By resisting the task in this way, students reveal the anxiety they experience when engaging in a task focussed on identity work, a task that uncovers identity tensions consequent to transforming their professional identity. Me-ness illustrates the individual's escape into the inner world that is

felt to be safe, comfortable and good [68,69]. Coping with the task of self-reflection (identity work) through self-reliance, independence and distancing from interdependence is evident in the words of P2: "After working for almost fourteen years in management and being offered directorship at the age of thirty-eight years, I began to realise that I needed to trust my capabilities, to assure myself that I have what it takes to 'manage' whatever comes my way" and "The realisation has to some extent shaped a frame of reference for my believing that I do not necessarily need others: I cannot/do not like working as a member of a team, I do not like group work, as I find that I achieve better results, when I complete tasks in my own way and independently."

#### *4.2. Primary Defences Defending against Perceived Identity Incongruences*

The second theme entails defending against perceived identity incongruences. The perception of identity incongruence was evident in students experiencing tension between their conscious (normative) and unconscious (phenomenological and existential) roles. Coping with the resulting performance anxiety was evident in primary psychodynamic defences such as splitting, projection and projective identification [25]. These have also been referred to as immature defences [70].

#### 4.2.1. Splitting

To deal with the anxiety elicited in the task of self-reflection, students tended to split objects of their role identification into good and bad opposites. One split was evident in juxtaposing the academic role with the role of practitioner, projecting onto the academic role the less worthy and valuable task:

I am not sure that the academic world will ever be home to me. It might become easier for me to understand and adhere to its customs, but I don't think I will ever choose to stay there for longer than I need to. I would rather be in the world outside where I can be doing. I have always performed well academically, and everyone has expected that I would follow an academic career, but that did not interest me. The theoretical and philosophical have never appealed to me, the practical did, and that is where I positioned myself (P1).

Similarly, P6 splits the roles of scientist and practitioner yet in a less obvious manner. For the greater part of his essay, he has copied definitions of the scientist-practitioner roles and aligned himself to each definition, without demonstrating authentic reflection on how he engages with and integrates these roles. His stance remains distanced and detached, as seen in his paraphrased list of roles: "My consulting value proposition and paradigm as a scientist-practitioner is adapting and designing assessment technologies/instruments for purpose of selection, training and vocational assessment; conducting individual assessment for the purpose of selection and training, career and vocational guidance, and leadership coaching; conducting individual assessment on individual wellness and work adjustment (psychopathology and work adjustment); conducting career counselling, advice and therapy " (P6).

Another student copes by creating a split between the consulting psychologist and other "external forces" that inhibit constructive work in the organisation. In doing so, P5 reveals the performance anxiety he experiences in taking up the consulting psychologist role: "I also realise that there are forces internal and external that would make it more challenging for the Consulting Psychologist to find a balance between the organisation, the group and the individual. The challenge for the Consulting Psychologist is to divorce him/herself from these external forces such as politics". The spilt in professional roles is also evident in P4's hero-ing of the consulting psychologist role as one that "is equipped with diverse knowledge and experience to help others meaningfully" as opposed to "I have always restricted my dealings with issues and clients strictly to methodologies within industrial psychologist stream."

In working with the tension between her need for belonging and her need for independence, P2 copes by splitting the self from the group: "I found myself concerned with whether the members of the team were up to date with expectations and going to an extent of contacting them through emails and some with a telephonic discussion. I consider this a degree of improvement as at least I

thought about the team and did something about that thought". Splits were also evident in the different professional categories of psychology: "I have always recognised myself as a clinician who works only with the individual to target the presented pathology/illness for a desired behaviour, treatment management and curative modalities ... Consulting Psychology is different" (P8).

Splitting seemed to reveal students' perception of identity incongruence in what they normatively expected themselves to do in the role, as opposed to their inherent and obscured insecurities and fears of incompetence. Their conscious and unconscious self-expectations left them with anxious feelings, which they resolved by creating outside forces that were feared or not acceptable. The way participants cope through splitting becomes more evident when integrated with how they invariably use projection as an unconscious defensive coping strategy.

#### 4.2.2. Projection

Engaging in the self-reflective exercise created discomfort because it entailed having to face and work with both positive and negative aspects of the self. Students defended themselves against this discomfort by attributing negative parts of the self to others. Narcissism and self-indulgence were projected onto the psychology profession as a whole and onto the task of reflecting on personal paradigms: "My impression is that psychologists have become so obsessed with their own paradigms and frames of reference, and in the process became so self-focused, that they are forgetting why they are here. There is a whole country in dire need of psychological services, but psychologists are pre-occupied with their paradigms, like Nero fiddling while Rome is burning" (P1). Later this student also projects egotism onto the corporate world: "The corporate world needs to learn how to effectively engage with communities, even if it [is] just for the benefit of their own triple bottom line—let's not kid ourselves, the corporate world rarely does something out of pure altruism" (P1).

Students cope with their performance anxiety by projecting inefficiency onto colleagues: "I often have a feeling that it will be better if I can do my work without interruptions from colleagues" (P2). They cope with their own fear of engaging in the self-reflection task (identity work) by projecting the fear of change onto organisations and "other people": "Some organizations may initially be apprehensive of change. The apprehension is normal ... they do not want change because change requires them to work and use energy, time and effort" (P8).

Positive attributes were also projected onto the consulting psychology profession and the consulting psychology doctorate. In a way, the students were idealising consulting psychology as an all-knowing, super-capable and competent force, which they wanted to attain: "although my frame of reference has been limited to models within industrial psychology, this programme has broadened my horizons" (P4). Similarly, P3 projects his ideal self onto the programme: "I feel that my journey through the PhD programme ... will assist in refining my work as a scientific-practitioner."

#### 4.2.3. Projective Identification

Students' projective identification was manifested predominantly in identifying with the sense in the class that their careers and professional competence would be adequate if they had *enough* knowledge. The students' projective identification started with them having introjected feelings of inadequacy, low self-efficacy and a sense of knowing too little and having too little experience. P3 comments "Starting off, my point of reference with regard to consulting psychology was nothing" and P2 reflects "I reflected on what I associated the term, capability, with. My impression is that there had been a rooted feeling of doubt, not only self-doubt, but silently kept childhood statements that echoed: 'you will not be able to be on the same level with your class/group'."

The introjected inadequacy led to the fantasy that the doctoral programme would empower them to become successful consulting psychologists (their expressed normative role). Students' valence for thinking they did not know enough was further evident in expressions of rigid self-expectation: "Some workshops really started providing me with more insights in what a Consulting Psychologist is supposed to know .... Consequently, as a Consulting Psychologist I need to become more aware of how the environment, the culture and the political spectrum dictates the functioning of the organisation, secondly I need to be able to understand ..." (P5). Similarly, P8 says: "Consulting Psychology is comprehensive and quite theoretical ... . Consulting psychologists need stringent and empirically tested interventions and methods to be able to target these dynamics."

#### *4.3. Applying Sophisticated Defences to Cope with Identity Tension and Performance Anxiety*

In psychodynamic theory, rationalisation and intellectualisation are regarded as mature defence mechanisms [45,71]. Through these mechanisms, the students suppressed emotions and proposed rational arguments to explain or describe their experiences.

#### 4.3.1. Intellectualisation

Examples of intellectualisation, where students suppress their emotional experiences, abound. One student, P4, engages with identity work (self-reflection) by speaking about her experience of becoming a consulting psychologist in a detached (theoretical) and absolute (over-generalising) manner: "A consulting psychologist must always be aware of the values and past experiences that he or she brings into the system or relationship with the new client. I have learnt that this helps for one to remain accurate and objective on matters while dealing with the client". Student P8 addresses her fear of incompetence by also providing a rational over-generalisation of what one *should* do when engaging in identity work: "It is important to also be aware of one's biases, personality and behavioural dynamics regarding the process as a psychologist and not allow these to hinder the consulting process". In a critical tone, using absolute terms, P1 defends against engaging personally with the identity transformation: "As a consultant, my work must be practical and useful, yet imbedded in science, and I must be aware of my impact and others' impact on me. Doing this programme is a time for me to grow and develop and acquire new skills."

Intellectualising their personal development in becoming a consulting psychologist, students avoid facing the anxiety that stems from such very personal identity work. In this way, they suppress feelings of discomfort experienced in relation to their evolving and transforming professional identity.

#### 4.3.2. Rationalisation

The belief that knowledge imparted to students by the lecturers and the programme will enable success and competence was found in various essays. This belief shows how students idealise the programme and knowledge as an intellectual defence against the fear of incompetence. In presenting an essay that is fully paraphrased from competency lists and definitions pertaining to consulting psychology, P6 rationalises his professional development and does not engage in self-reflection at all. Also finding solace in knowledge and science, P3 rationalises that the knowledge he will gain as a result of the programme will make him a more effective psychologist: "This potential is where positive psychology can be enlisted as a new frame of reference to carry on the implementation of growth and actualising steps ... So far, conceptually, it would appear that my personal knowledge base, at this stage of my development, would constitute Psychodynamics, Dynamic Systems Theory and Positive Psychology." In his explanation of how he looks at a client context, P5 notes: "As an assessment practitioner, the data tells you something and 'it is what it is'." Similarly, P7 rationalises his consulting skills in relation to a process model of consulting psychology; he seems to find comfort in the belief that the theoretical model will provide him with the ability to ensure success:

In the third stage, intervention phase, care should be given to ensure that the interventions to be implemented are a joint venture (joint action plan) between myself and the client and not necessarily my own prescriptions. The last stage, evaluation phase, is of importance for me because it allows me to be reflective and critical of myself and the consulting process in each stage, so as to address possible challenges and ensure that the consulting process brings about desired outcomes.

In these ways, students do not take ownership of their identity transformation, because of fearing their incompetence. They rather rationalise about how the programme will impart the knowledge they need, or how theoretical models will show them the way to be effective in consulting.

#### **5. Discussion**

This study aimed to develop an understanding of the coping dynamics that consulting psychology doctoral students employ when transitioning their professional role identity. In working with their professional identity, students show fear of incompetence as well as anxiety in relation to preserving the self. Such fear and anxiety are defined as performance and survival anxiety [30] and are typically also found in other system psychodynamic studies working with identity construction [26,45,72]. To deal with their performance and survival anxieties, the three themes constructed in the findings describe the students' coping dynamics from a system psychodynamic stance in terms of basic assumption or anti-task behaviour, primary and sophisticated psychodynamic defences.

Students firstly engaged in basic assumption or anti-task behaviour such as dependency, fight, pairing and me-ness as a way of coping with their performance and survival anxieties. In doing so, they attempted to regain a sense of competence and self-efficacy while transitioning their professional role identity. In idealising consulting psychology, as well as the doctoral programme and its lecturers, students demonstrated a dependency mentality to resolve the insecurity and self-doubt they felt in having to take up the role of consulting psychologist. Similarly, pairing with these same objects, which they deemed powerful and authoritative, helped them to cope with feeling incompetent. Students therefore sought out the consulting psychology knowledge domain and the doctoral programme with its lecturers, as a container of their performance anxiety. To preserve the self and deal with survival anxieties in taking up the consulting psychology role, students reverted to an anti-task mentality of fight and me-ness. By attacking the task of self-reflection (i.e., the task of identity work) and resisting teamwork, students tried to preserve a sense of self that they knew and felt comfortable with. In doing so, they split the self from the task or from the team and projected onto the task/team the feelings of discomfort and suspicion related to their ability to be a consulting psychologist. By emphasising me-ness, students also attempted to preserve the self in relation to the identity tension they experienced between wanting to belong to the consulting psychology fraternity and retaining their unique psychologist identity.

Anxiety that resulted from perceived identity incongruences in their normative and existential or phenomenological role parts secondly surfaced in how they used projection, splitting and projective identification to deal with the ensuing fears of not being good enough. Taking up a new role entails taking up a role that is given or normative, which refers to the rational and measurable work related to the task [26,73]. At the same time, it includes taking up an informal role, reflected in the personal, frequently unconscious needs and aspirations of the individual [50]. The informal or unconscious role is also referred to as the existential or phenomenological role parts [26]. Students demonstrated these primary psychodynamic defences specifically in relation to coping with the incongruences they experienced in their formal or conscious task and the informal/unconscious task to manage the self in relation to the other. Through splitting the domains and roles of academic/scientist and practitioner, students coped with the tension of not feeling good enough in their existential/phenomenological role. Their self-doubt was recognised in the high expectations they introjected in relation to the consulting psychology role and the concurrent projective identification of not being good enough. Students continued to cope with their performance anxiety by projecting negative attributes such as narcissism and inefficiency onto others in an effort to preserve their sense of self.

Thirdly, they rationalised and intellectualised their work identity and professional role transition, in an attempt not to deal with the unwanted emotions that resulted from their identity work. Further expression of their normative role was also found in students' intellectualisation and *rationalisation* of consulting psychology as an all-powerful knowledge domain. Through these two sophisticated defences, students talked about their consulting psychology role in a way that

emphasised absolute knowledge and competence, ultimately demonstrating incongruence with their felt (introjected) sense of incompetence. In this way, reasoning and rational thought were used to avoid dealing with difficult emotions [37,74].

The findings show how consulting psychology doctoral students engage with and express identity work when they reflexively engage and formulate self-reflective thoughts about their experience of taking up a new professional role identity. It is hypothesised that active identity work (such as in self-reflective activities) is valuable for students to deal with their performance and survival anxiety, because in doing so, they uncover their unconscious coping dynamic, a dynamic that is a normal part of facilitating their adjustment to transitioning into a new professional identity. This finding is in support of reflective spaces or identity workspaces, which according to system psychodynamic theory provide a safe space to surface and consciously work with below-the-surface anxieties that result from identity transition [54,55]

Employing certain defence mechanisms to cope with performance anxiety has traditionally been described as maladaptive or pathological [35]. In the present study, the defensive coping dynamic that was evident in the students' identity work is rather proposed to be a natural (normal) and evolving process of transitioning into a new professional role [54]. Some psychodynamic perspectives on coping emphasise hierarchies of defensive coping, depending on the level of reality distortion—from psychotic and immature to mature [70,75]. These theories show that coping *evolves* as a person's cognitive functions mature [76]. This study further supports the notion of defences as behavioural phenomena, rather than referring to defence mechanisms as measurable constructs [77]. It is therefore conjectured that defensive coping is an important, dynamic and interrelated behavioural phenomenon that could potentially be conducive to adjustment, because it is a natural part of identity work. Defensive coping is an important part of understanding the coping phenomenon holistically, and it is in working with all the parts of the coping dynamic that the whole adjustment process can be facilitated. Defensive coping is conducive to adjustment, as it progresses the identity work relevant to professional role transition and brings to the surface the otherwise unconscious coping dynamic. Recently, even quantitative studies exploring the correlation between coping and defences have confirmed that specific adaptive strategies can only be effectively employed when unconscious processes have been attended to [78]. Active identity work is a way to develop consciousness of the self when taking up a new professional role.

Therefore, rather than speaking of either adaptive or immature coping strategies and either psychotic or mature defence mechanisms, coping is a dynamic phenomenon that includes defensive coping. Studies show that people constantly re-evaluate and reconstruct the self in the work context [72]. Unearthing the unconscious dynamics of defensive coping through conscious identity work may develop the resilience required to establish a professional identity in which the self is both interdependent and unique. A study of the systems psychodynamic role identity of academic supervisors [26] similarly demonstrates how focusing solely on conscious behavioural adaptation can limit valuable insight into unconscious adaptive identity work. We argue that the human coping phenomenon is studied only in part if the covert and unconscious social dimensions of coping, such as splitting, projections and projective identification, are ignored. The system psychodynamic stance, with its focus on the unconscious and irrational forces in human behaviour, moves beyond the mainstream cognitive coping theory that focusses on rational, conscious coping, by taking a depth perspective on this phenomenon. To focus solely on conscious behavioural adaptation may thus limit valuable insight into unconscious adaptive identity work.

The findings also have implications for the work of faculty in general and educators in particular. It is evident that students should be provided with more conscious and structured support. Firstly, it would serve to sensitise (creating awareness) faculty and educators to the anxiety-provoking realities of identity transition and identity formation. Secondly, it would create safe, contained spaces for conscious reflection nestled in the different components of the consulting psychology doctoral programme. Finally, identity work, in the form of self-reflective activities, should become the norm

(rather than the exception), as a way of developing consciousness of the self. In doing this, coping would be appreciated as a dynamic phenomenon, and in the process, resilience would be nurtured as required in transitioning a new professional identity.

A system psychodynamic perspective to coping would be incomplete if the discussion does not allow for constructing interpretations and hypotheses of the individual as reflective of the larger system and the dilemmas and challenges faced by it [71]. This study therefore also has implications for understanding how the psychology profession in South Africa may be coping with its unresolved identity tensions as a collective. The students' identity work reflects the performance and survival anxieties evident in the psychology profession, as their defensive coping mirrors similar dynamics in the profession as a collective. From the background to this article, the splitting of professional categories, fight behaviour, pairing with the legal system and intellectualisation and rationalisation through the formulation and reformulation of regulations demonstrate how the psychology profession is coping with its identity tensions and are suggestive of an identity transition. Like the students' experiences, the psychology profession will have to find ways to "normalise" this tension (both a challenge and an opportunity) in search of an identity that is relevant and dynamic, given the ever-changing socio-political and economic landscape and changing societal needs.

This study is limited in the extent to which the range of the coping dynamic has been discussed, purely because of the limited scope of taking a specific approach. As such, the authors acknowledge that the findings reflect a specific stance that does not necessarily demonstrate the holistic coping dynamic we are advocating, because it does not deal with overt, cognitive coping strategies. As researchers we acknowledge the limitation associated with small sample sizes and qualitative analysis, and therefore, we do not claim that our findings constitute an absolute or generalisable truth. In true hermeneutic phenomenological fashion, we present the findings as a perspective that may add value to scholarly understanding in working with identity conflicts and related coping dynamics. The value of the psychodynamic approach to coping was celebrated in the findings and highlighted defensive coping as an essential and natural part of the whole coping dynamic. We support research proponents of in-depth, qualitative inquiry into the study of defensive coping [77]. Continuous interpretive inquiry from a psychodynamic stance, to build theory abductively [77], is recommended to enhance our understanding of defensive coping as part of adjustment rather than pure evidence of maladaptive coping. In this vein, we recommend research exploring students' identity work as it evolves in their self-reflective work throughout the year, exploring the aspect of maturation in the phenomenon of defensive coping.

#### **6. Conclusions**

In general, consulting psychology doctoral students perform well in terms of coping with their professional identity development, as they have completed their first year of doctoral studies successfully and are all well on track towards completing the degree. An exploration of below-the-surface dynamics reveals an interesting defensive coping dynamic that contributes to a more holistic understanding of coping with identity transition in the psychology profession. Consciously, the students engaged in self-reflection about taking up the role of consulting psychologist in a rational and intelligent manner. Unconsciously, while transitioning a professional role identity, they experienced performance and survival anxiety, which became conscious in the process of self-reflection or identity work and in exploring their coping dynamics from a systems psychodynamic perspective. The students also mirrored the identity work and defensive coping of the larger psychology profession. The identity work of the individual professional cannot be detached from the identity work of the collective system but rather provides potential insight into the collective on its adaptive functioning.

System psychodynamic coping is a dynamic process phenomenon that should not be conceptually limited to the discussion of defence mechanisms. Coping with identity tensions and demands includes defensive coping, which is a natural phenomenon and something that is engaged with in everyday life as our professional careers develop. Conscious and active identity work reveals the related unconscious

dynamics. The task of self-reflection not only propels the students to do identity work, but in the process, they become aware of their defensive coping and continue to develop reflexivity and resilience in transitioning to a new professional identity. Proponents of system psychodynamics view wellness as a relational and systemic concept [68]. A certain level of congruence between the internal and external reality of the self is needed for wellness to be developed and sustained. This wrestling with identity tension is therefore not only important, but necessary as well. In becoming aware of their identity-related anxieties and defensive coping, professionals, such as the students in this study, can feed this awareness back into the profession and collectively start to model the courage to acknowledge insecurities, take back their projections and repair splits. Psychological well-being and coping result from healthy intrapersonal (within a person) and interpersonal (between people) relations [54].

Developing consulting psychology competence is valuable in facilitating behavioural change in organisations [79,80]. The doctorate in consulting psychology is particularly important in the South African context to bridge professional divides in the psychology profession and draw from the multidisciplinary pool of skills and competence to continue to address the country's mental health needs effectively on all levels.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation, A.B.; data curation, A.B. and A.-P.F.; formal analysis, A.B.; investigation, A.B. and A.-P.F.; methodology, A.B. and A.-P.F.; project administration, A.B. and A.-P.F.; validation, A.-P.F.; writing—original draft preparation, A.B.; writing—review and editing, A.B. and A.-P.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to acknowledge their Ph.D. students for the selfless sharing of their phenomenological experiences and their permission to use their personal experiences for research purposes.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

International Journal of *Environmental Research and Public Health*
