While Professor Gomez was going through a painful divorce,he tended to create unnecessarily difficult tests and gave his students unusually low grades. A psychoanalyst would be most likely to view the professor's treatment of students as an example of

A) reaction formation.
B) displacement.
C) projection.
D) regression.

Displacement

A defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory where an individual shifts negative feelings from the original source of distress to a more acceptable or less threatening target.

Painful Divorce

A distressing dissolution of marriage that involves significant emotional stress and pain.

Psychoanalyst

A therapist who follows and practices psychoanalytic theories, primarily those of Freud, focusing on the unconscious mind.