Abstract
The present research was designed to investigate the proposition that repressors, operationally defined by the conjunction of low anxiety and high defensiveness, are particularly adept at avoiding the processing of information when motivated to do so. Four groups of participants (nondefensive-low anxious, high anxious, repressors, and defensive-high anxious) were administered a dichotic listening task involving neutral or negative affective words presented in the unattended ear. Participants shadowed the material presented to the attended ear and simultaneously responded to a probe task presented on a video monitor. Results revealed that repressors made significantly fewer shadowing errors than high anxious and defensive-high anxious participants and marginally significantly fewer shadowing errors than low anxious participants for both neutral and negative words. High anxious participants, however, were later able to recognize the negative words that had been presented to the unattended ear at well above chance levels, whereas the recognition memory of repressors for such negative unattended words was at chance levels. In addition, repressors' responses to a postexperiment questionnaire indicated a significantly greater number of distracting thoughts during the experiment relative to other participants. Repressors, it seems, are indeed skillful at avoidant information processing and this capacity may well be related to the emotional memory deficits they have displayed in previous research.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 386-401 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Research in Personality |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1991 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
Cite this
The repressor personality and avoidant information processing : A dichotic listening study. / Bonanno, George A.; Davis, Penelope J.; Singer, Jerome L.; Schwartz, Gary E.
In: Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1991, p. 386-401.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The repressor personality and avoidant information processing
T2 - A dichotic listening study
AU - Bonanno, George A.
AU - Davis, Penelope J.
AU - Singer, Jerome L.
AU - Schwartz, Gary E
PY - 1991
Y1 - 1991
N2 - The present research was designed to investigate the proposition that repressors, operationally defined by the conjunction of low anxiety and high defensiveness, are particularly adept at avoiding the processing of information when motivated to do so. Four groups of participants (nondefensive-low anxious, high anxious, repressors, and defensive-high anxious) were administered a dichotic listening task involving neutral or negative affective words presented in the unattended ear. Participants shadowed the material presented to the attended ear and simultaneously responded to a probe task presented on a video monitor. Results revealed that repressors made significantly fewer shadowing errors than high anxious and defensive-high anxious participants and marginally significantly fewer shadowing errors than low anxious participants for both neutral and negative words. High anxious participants, however, were later able to recognize the negative words that had been presented to the unattended ear at well above chance levels, whereas the recognition memory of repressors for such negative unattended words was at chance levels. In addition, repressors' responses to a postexperiment questionnaire indicated a significantly greater number of distracting thoughts during the experiment relative to other participants. Repressors, it seems, are indeed skillful at avoidant information processing and this capacity may well be related to the emotional memory deficits they have displayed in previous research.
AB - The present research was designed to investigate the proposition that repressors, operationally defined by the conjunction of low anxiety and high defensiveness, are particularly adept at avoiding the processing of information when motivated to do so. Four groups of participants (nondefensive-low anxious, high anxious, repressors, and defensive-high anxious) were administered a dichotic listening task involving neutral or negative affective words presented in the unattended ear. Participants shadowed the material presented to the attended ear and simultaneously responded to a probe task presented on a video monitor. Results revealed that repressors made significantly fewer shadowing errors than high anxious and defensive-high anxious participants and marginally significantly fewer shadowing errors than low anxious participants for both neutral and negative words. High anxious participants, however, were later able to recognize the negative words that had been presented to the unattended ear at well above chance levels, whereas the recognition memory of repressors for such negative unattended words was at chance levels. In addition, repressors' responses to a postexperiment questionnaire indicated a significantly greater number of distracting thoughts during the experiment relative to other participants. Repressors, it seems, are indeed skillful at avoidant information processing and this capacity may well be related to the emotional memory deficits they have displayed in previous research.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=28844502434&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=28844502434&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0092-6566(91)90029-P
DO - 10.1016/0092-6566(91)90029-P
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:28844502434
VL - 25
SP - 386
EP - 401
JO - Journal of Research in Personality
JF - Journal of Research in Personality
SN - 0092-6566
IS - 4
ER -