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90-year-old mechanic retires after 75 years at same company

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A 90-year-old Vauxhall mechanic has finally hung up his tools after working for the same company for 75 years, saying continuing to work there helped keep him young.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bryan Webb was presented with a ceremonial spanner by colleagues at his farewell, where a plaque made in his honour was also unveiled.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845385/mechanic1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/b753b75e25a34e5689dfa5942d387d79" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bryan Webb (left) with local branch director Julian Bawdown (right) after his plaque was unveiled. Image: Vauxhall</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Webb said he would miss working but looked forward to having a cup of tea and a sleep in the afternoons.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I always thought if you kept working it kept you young,” he told the </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-59070753" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">BBC</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If you work it keeps you going, it gets you up in the morning to get out.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Webb started at the company in 1946 as a mechanical apprentice after walking into Hough &amp; Whitmore garage in Gloucester.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845386/mechanic2.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/641a77c432d845ed92362d65b684b26a" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bryan Webb (third from left) pictured shortly after starting work as a mechanical apprentice in 1946. Image: Vauxhall</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since then he has gone on to hold several other roles, including a 34-year stint as a warranty administrator. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I was in workshop control and working with trucks and cars,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“You had to wash engines off out in the cold and it was hard work in the early days but things change, cars change, and when you strip an engine now it’s clean rather than being full of muck.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The biggest change I’ve seen in my career is new technology coming in,” he </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.media.stellantis.com/uk-en/vauxhall/press/master-and-apprentice-vauxhall-stalwart-retires-after-clocking-up-75-years-of-service?utm_source=vauxhallsocial&amp;utm_medium=SOC-CON&amp;utm_campaign=OV_UK_28102021_vn_AlwaysOnCorsa-e_1GJOA5FESF_OnGoing_SOC-CON_A_TF&amp;ddm1_psa_ovuk=HashedMail" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">added</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1970, Mr Webb was recognised for 25 years of service and was handed a commemorative watch, which he still wears today.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845387/mechanic3.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/87a17fbefa114cf6a961a5628effa9e8" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Webb received a ceremonial spanner from his colleagues at his farewell party. Image: BBC</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He said that when he turned 65 he would stay on “for a couple of years, and it turned into 25”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Local branch director Julian Bawdon - who joined the company in 2008 - said he asked Mr Webb how much longer he would stay with the company.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vauxhall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Vauxhall</a> wishes one of its longest-serving staff members a happy retirement, ending a 75-year career with the company. Bryan Webb began work for <a href="https://twitter.com/vauxhall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Vauxhall</a> in 1946, after walking into his local garage &amp; by the age of 26, he was already workshop foreman. 👉<a href="https://t.co/e4zCDuiPGD">https://t.co/e4zCDuiPGD</a> <a href="https://t.co/JwjgKI5Zvr">pic.twitter.com/JwjgKI5Zvr</a></p> — Vauxhall PR (@VauxhallPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/VauxhallPR/status/1453714486959947783?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I said to him as long as he can still do the job he can carry on, and here we are today with 75 years service,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“He’s bright as a button. Bryan’s a character and we’ll all miss having him around.”</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Vauxhall</span></em></p>

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The defence mechanism most toxic for your relationship

<p><em><strong>Susan Krauss Whitbourne is a professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She writes the Fulfilment at Any Age blog for Psychology Today.</strong></em></p> <p>From the standpoint of avoiding anxiety, it can be hard to beat a good old, ordinary, defence mechanism. If you’re angry at an important person in your life, displacement will let you take your emotions out on a safer target, such as a small rock that you kick out of your way in the sidewalk. If there’s an expensive piece of jewellery that you can’t stop thinking about, but can’t afford, repression will help you shove it out of your consciousness. There are countless other ways that defence mechanisms, when used in moderation, can actually be very adaptive.</p> <p>In your relationships, though, defence mechanisms can take an unfortunate turn if used in the wrong way. Your partner wouldn’t appreciate being the target of your displaced <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/anger" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at anger">anger</a></strong></span> and might not like it if you “repressed” your putting off unpleasant chores around the house. However, above and beyond these less than optimal uses of defence mechanisms, one stands out as particularly toxic. In the defence mechanism of projection, you attribute your own <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/unconscious" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at unconscious">unconscious</a></strong></span> anxieties and preoccupations onto another person. You then become, naturally enough, annoyed at that person for having those same emotions and thoughts that you reject in yourself.</p> <p>New research on social perception shows that projection can turn what should be empathy into an unfeeling lack of concern if your partner is in trouble. A study on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201806/8-ways-test-your-stress-mindset" target="_blank">stress mindsets</a></strong></span> by Tel Aviv University’s Nili Ben-Avi and collaborators (2018) shows what happens when your own attitude toward <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/stress" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at stress">stress</a></strong></span> makes you unsympathetic to a person who is clearly undergoing strain. In one type of stress mindset, or attitude toward the stressful events in your life, you find pressure to be exhilarating, and in the other, you find it to be debilitating. The Israeli researchers believe that the way you perceive stress in your life will, in turn, affect the way you perceive that of other people. If you’re of the belief that stress is good, you’ll regard it as silly complaining when it gets to your partner, who puts in long hours full of competing demands. If you regard stress as a frame of mind to be avoided at all costs, you’ll similarly feel that your overworked partner should find a different job or at least stay away from any work tasks in the evening and weekend hours.</p> <p>Ben-Avi and colleagues take an experimental social psychological approach, meaning that they don’t truly speak of “defence mechanisms” as having that same set of unconscious drivers as do psychodynamically-oriented theorists. Nevertheless, the idea of “social projection” seems to fit the classic defence mechanism approach, as you can see from this definition: “when people try to evaluate targets' thoughts, feelings, or behaviours, they often project their own corresponding states, thereby arriving at inaccurate social judgments” (p. 98). Believing that your partner feels the same way about stress as you do clearly fits into this definition of social projection.</p> <p>The Israeli study showed that people high on the “stress-as-exhilarating” mindset were less likely to see a fictitious target in an online scenario as suffering from the negative effects of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/burnout" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at burnout">burnout</a></strong></span>, and to suffer ill effects on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/health" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at health">health</a></strong></span>. They also were less likely to believe that the target should stay home when ill (“presenteeism”). The way participants viewed stress also affected the way that they would make personnel decisions about the fictitious employee. If they felt that they personally thrived on stress, then they believed that employees who didn’t share this mindset shouldn’t be promoted, as they did not view the employee as potentially suffering from burnout.</p> <p>An experimental manipulation that the authors conducted as part of their research involved <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/priming" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at priming">priming</a></strong></span> participants into one of the two stress mindsets by having them think either about a time in their lives when they felt overworked or, conversely, when they felt energized. This method showed that your stress mindset can be malleable. People operating under a stress-is-enhancing mindset perceived the target as experiencing less strain and therefore as in need of less help. They also saw the target as more promotable at work. As the authors conclude, there is a dark side and a bright side regarding the interpersonal implications of the idea that stress is enhancing. The dark side is that if you believe stress is good for you, you’ll also believe it’s good for someone else and will offer less help to someone who seems to be on the verge of extreme burnout. On the bright side, though, perceiving another person as operating under high levels of stress may make you see that person as better able to handle stress and so you’ll give that person more responsibility (and maybe a promotion).</p> <p>In terms of your relationships, though, the Israeli findings suggest that projection isn’t just a theoretical concept left over from the psychoanalyst’s couch. People judge others on the basis of their own preferences, self-assessments, and attitudes. As a result, it will be difficult for you to provide the kind of empathy that can help your partner feel supported and loved when work or family obligations make life particularly difficult.</p> <p>To overcome the projection you may feel toward your partner, take a page from the Ben-Avi et al’s playbook and try to recall the last time you felt the way you believe your partner to be feeling. Perhaps your partner seems overly sensitive to a mutual friend’s somewhat unfortunately sarcastic jokes. If you have a tendency toward the cynical, your partner’s sensitivity may seem to be too extreme. Try to recall a time when you were the target of a similarly unfortunately comment. That teasing really did hurt you. Just remembering that incident may allow you to see the world from your partner’s own eyes. This exercise might also help you see that you’re not quite as resistant to teasing as you thought you were.</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/happiness" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at Happiness">Happiness</a></strong></span> in long-term relationships depends in many ways on being able to overcome your own tendency to impose your wishes onto your partner. Projection can prevent that open-minded <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/empathy" target="_blank" title="Psychology Today looks at understanding">understanding</a></strong></span> that helps foster true communication with your partner. A simple self-check can help you avoid the projection trap and, in the process, help your relationship become that much more fulfilling.</p> <p><em>Written by Susan Krauss Whitbourne. Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Psychology Today.</span></strong></a></em></p>

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5 defence mechanisms sabotaging your relationship

<p><em><strong>Susan Krauss Whitbourne is a professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She writes the Fulfilment at Any Age blog for Psychology Today.</strong></em></p> <p>Everyone uses defence mechanisms, and if you believe Freud, everyone has to, in order to avoid staring in the face of our worst anxieties. Even if you don’t believe Freud, it’s hard to argue with the position that we all occasionally rely on such common forms of managing our most difficult feelings as pushing them out of awareness. In close relationships, where your deepest emotions are often aroused, it’s even more likely that you’ll rely on your defences to help you manage those emotions. As it turns out, some of the most common defence mechanisms may make you even more anxious by getting in the way of your relationship happiness. A new paper by Wei Zhang and Ben-yu Guo (2017) of Nanjing China’s Normal University, suggests which defence mechanisms are worst and, by extension, how to turn them from maladaptive to adaptive.</p> <p>According to Zhang and Guo, researchers have moved well past Freud’s original position on defence mechanisms, and the concept is now an integral feature of such areas within psychology as cognition, emotion, personality, and development. A well-known categorization of defence mechanisms by George Vaillant in 1994 differentiated between <em>immature</em> defence mechanisms, such as projection (blaming others) and denial, and mature defences, like humour and sublimation (turning your unconscious motives into productive activity). Other models building on Vaillant have similarly attempted to categorize defence mechanisms along a continuum from unhealthy to healthy.</p> <p>These characterizations of defence mechanisms are useful, but Zhang and Guo note that they lack a coordinated theoretical framework that incorporates current psychological thinking. The Nanjing authors propose, instead, a new model based on concepts derived from systems theory. The basic premise is that we relate to ourselves, and other people, in a continuous exchange of psychological energy. Their model, called “dissipative structure theory,” regards defence mechanisms as serving to “maintain the stability and order of cognitive-affective schema and to decrease the accompanying emotion.” </p> <p>The cognitive-affective schema, simply put, are the thoughts and emotions you hold toward yourself. They are composed of positive and negative representations, and are in part unconscious. Most people prefer to view themselves positively, and prefer sameness to change. Defence mechanisms play an important role in this self-preservation strategy. In the short run, defence mechanisms may make you feel better, because you don’t have to change your view of yourself. Over time, though, they can erode your own adaptation and, more important, your relationships. In other words, you use defence mechanisms to help you feel better about yourself, but do so at your peril, because they can lead you into problematic relationships with the people you care about the most.</p> <p>There are three main categories of defence mechanisms according to this model:</p> <ol start="1"> <li>Isolation allows you to protect your own self-representation by keeping yourself <strong>clueless</strong> about your flaws and missteps. You might use projection blaming, for example, in which you accuse others of the flaws you secretly fear you possess. You might also use denial, in which you push your negative emotions out of awareness, in which case “the unconscious functions as a trash bin in which the individual stores its ‘rubbish’” (p. 465).</li> <li>The second category of defence mechanisms involves <strong>compensation</strong>, in which you turn to ways of alleviating negative emotions by, for example, abusing substances rather than confronting your negative self-views ("compensation" refers to your attempt to find an external outlet to feel better). </li> <li>The third category is <strong>self-dissipation</strong>, in which you turn all of your anxieties onto some idealized version of yourself in what can become a form of grandiosity.</li> </ol> <p>The criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of a defence mechanism, in the Nanjing authors' model, include whether it (a) distorts the individual’s self-representation and (b) causes poorer relations with others. In this view, defence mechanisms can provide the short-term solution of helping you feel better, but cause problems in the long-term as your self-representation becomes increasingly divorced from reality. Further, when you push people away, defence mechanisms will only create more anxiety, not to mention the loss of important relationships.</p> <p>We can make practical use of this new and more nuanced view of defence mechanisms by considering the downside to each of these major five types outlined in the model. Try to think about which of these might apply to you by answering the questions below:</p> <ol start="1"> <li><strong>Projection: </strong>Do you blame your partner for the flaws you experience in yourself? Perhaps you’re a bit forgetful and messy. Rather than admit it, do you accuse your partner of failing to be thoughtful and neat? </li> <li><strong>Denial: </strong>Do you try to protect your self-representation by pretending that negative experiences haven’t occurred? Do you close your eyes and think that everything is going to be just fine, even when your partner seems upset with you? </li> <li><strong>Compensation:</strong> Do you turn to alcohol or drugs instead of confronting your own negative emotions? Is it easier to have an extra glass of wine or beer rather than talk to your partner about what's bothering you?</li> <li><strong>Daydreaming: </strong>How much do you fantasize that all of your problems and challenges will simply disappear? Would you rather escape into your own world where everything is perfect rather than step into the real and flawed life that you and your partner share?</li> <li><strong>Grandiosity: </strong>Do you see yourself as more important than your partner? Do you constantly expect to be admired, while at the same time not acknowledging your partner's accomplishments? Is it hard for you to give credit when your partner is right?</li> </ol> <p>As the Nanking authors point out, it can be difficult to abandon defence mechanisms that you’ve become accustomed to using, as they allow you to protect a stable view of yourself, even if it's an inaccurate one. If your self-representation has maintained itself for years by protecting yourself inordinately from reality, it’s going to be a challenge to move away from that status quo.</p> <p>Even though change is difficult to initiate, particularly if you've built up some very solid defences, it is possible to move to a new and more adaptive relationship to the reality you inhabit with your partner. Your partner can even help you in this change process. Using the person who knows and loves you the best, you can begin to achieve fulfillment both in your own self-understanding and, ultimately, in the quality of an improved close relationship.</p> <p><em>Written by Susan Krauss Whitbourne. First appeared on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a></strong></span>. </em></p>

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5 defence mechanisms sabotaging your relationship

<p><em><strong>Susan Krauss Whitbourne is a professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She writes the Fulfilment at Any Age blog for Psychology Today.</strong></em></p> <p>Everyone uses defence mechanisms, and if you believe Freud, everyone has to, in order to avoid staring in the face of our worst anxieties. Even if you don’t believe Freud, it’s hard to argue with the position that we all occasionally rely on such common forms of managing our most difficult feelings as pushing them out of awareness. In close relationships, where your deepest emotions are often aroused, it’s even more likely that you’ll rely on your defences to help you manage those emotions. As it turns out, some of the most common defence mechanisms may make you even more anxious by getting in the way of your relationship happiness. A new paper by Wei Zhang and Ben-yu Guo (2017) of Nanjing China’s Normal University, suggests which defence mechanisms are worst and, by extension, how to turn them from maladaptive to adaptive.</p> <p>According to Zhang and Guo, researchers have moved well past Freud’s original position on defence mechanisms, and the concept is now an integral feature of such areas within psychology as cognition, emotion, personality, and development. A well-known categorization of defence mechanisms by George Vaillant in 1994 differentiated between <em>immature</em> defence mechanisms, such as projection (blaming others) and denial, and mature defences, like humour and sublimation (turning your unconscious motives into productive activity). Other models building on Vaillant have similarly attempted to categorize defence mechanisms along a continuum from unhealthy to healthy.</p> <p>These characterizations of defence mechanisms are useful, but Zhang and Guo note that they lack a coordinated theoretical framework that incorporates current psychological thinking. The Nanjing authors propose, instead, a new model based on concepts derived from systems theory. The basic premise is that we relate to ourselves, and other people, in a continuous exchange of psychological energy. Their model, called “dissipative structure theory,” regards defence mechanisms as serving to “maintain the stability and order of cognitive-affective schema and to decrease the accompanying emotion.” </p> <p>The cognitive-affective schema, simply put, are the thoughts and emotions you hold toward yourself. They are composed of positive and negative representations, and are in part unconscious. Most people prefer to view themselves positively, and prefer sameness to change. Defence mechanisms play an important role in this self-preservation strategy. In the short run, defence mechanisms may make you feel better, because you don’t have to change your view of yourself. Over time, though, they can erode your own adaptation and, more important, your relationships. In other words, you use defence mechanisms to help you feel better about yourself, but do so at your peril, because they can lead you into problematic relationships with the people you care about the most.</p> <p>There are three main categories of defence mechanisms according to this model:</p> <ol start="1"> <li>Isolation allows you to protect your own self-representation by keeping yourself <strong>clueless</strong> about your flaws and missteps. You might use projection blaming, for example, in which you accuse others of the flaws you secretly fear you possess. You might also use denial, in which you push your negative emotions out of awareness, in which case “the unconscious functions as a trash bin in which the individual stores its ‘rubbish’” (p. 465).</li> <li>The second category of defence mechanisms involves <strong>compensation</strong>, in which you turn to ways of alleviating negative emotions by, for example, abusing substances rather than confronting your negative self-views ("compensation" refers to your attempt to find an external outlet to feel better). </li> <li>The third category is <strong>self-dissipation</strong>, in which you turn all of your anxieties onto some idealized version of yourself in what can become a form of grandiosity.</li> </ol> <p>The criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of a defence mechanism, in the Nanjing authors' model, include whether it (a) distorts the individual’s self-representation and (b) causes poorer relations with others. In this view, defence mechanisms can provide the short-term solution of helping you feel better, but cause problems in the long-term as your self-representation becomes increasingly divorced from reality. Further, when you push people away, defence mechanisms will only create more anxiety, not to mention the loss of important relationships.</p> <p>We can make practical use of this new and more nuanced view of defence mechanisms by considering the downside to each of these major five types outlined in the model. Try to think about which of these might apply to you by answering the questions below:</p> <ol start="1"> <li><strong>Projection: </strong>Do you blame your partner for the flaws you experience in yourself? Perhaps you’re a bit forgetful and messy. Rather than admit it, do you accuse your partner of failing to be thoughtful and neat? </li> <li><strong>Denial: </strong>Do you try to protect your self-representation by pretending that negative experiences haven’t occurred? Do you close your eyes and think that everything is going to be just fine, even when your partner seems upset with you? </li> <li><strong>Compensation:</strong> Do you turn to alcohol or drugs instead of confronting your own negative emotions? Is it easier to have an extra glass of wine or beer rather than talk to your partner about what's bothering you?</li> <li><strong>Daydreaming: </strong>How much do you fantasize that all of your problems and challenges will simply disappear? Would you rather escape into your own world where everything is perfect rather than step into the real and flawed life that you and your partner share?</li> <li><strong>Grandiosity: </strong>Do you see yourself as more important than your partner? Do you constantly expect to be admired, while at the same time not acknowledging your partner's accomplishments? Is it hard for you to give credit when your partner is right?</li> </ol> <p>As the Nanking authors point out, it can be difficult to abandon defence mechanisms that you’ve become accustomed to using, as they allow you to protect a stable view of yourself, even if it's an inaccurate one. If your self-representation has maintained itself for years by protecting yourself inordinately from reality, it’s going to be a challenge to move away from that status quo.</p> <p>Even though change is difficult to initiate, particularly if you've built up some very solid defences, it is possible to move to a new and more adaptive relationship to the reality you inhabit with your partner. Your partner can even help you in this change process. Using the person who knows and loves you the best, you can begin to achieve fulfillment both in your own self-understanding and, ultimately, in the quality of an improved close relationship.</p> <p><em>Written by Susan Krauss Whitbourne. First appeared on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a></strong></span>. </em></p>

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