Final answer:
Suppression is the defense mechanism where one consciously avoids thinking about anxiety-producing ideas or feelings, in contrast to repression, which is unconscious.
Step-by-step explanation:
The psychological defense mechanism that involves the conscious pushing down of anxiety-producing ideas, urges, desires, feelings, or memories is known as suppression. This is unlike repression, which occurs unconsciously. Suppression is a process where the individual is aware of the distressing thoughts and deliberately chooses to avoid thinking about them to cope with the moment. The difference is that suppression is a conscious effort, while repression is automatic and without awareness. To provide further clarity, if the scenarios provided are like turning up the radio to ignore a car's strange noise (repression), then suppression would be more like acknowledging the noise but choosing to deal with it later when it feels more manageable.