The repressor personality and avoidant information processing

A dichotic listening study

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11065342
AutoresGeorge A Bonanno (0000-0002-8260-4435, Yale University, autor de correspondencia), Penelope J Davis (Harvard University Press), Jerome L Singer (Yale University), Gary E Schwartz (0000-0001-8666-5473, University of Arizona)
Año1991
Volumen25
Número4
Páginas386-401
Fecha de publicación1991-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Research in Personality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0092-6566 • E-ISSN: 1095-7251
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/0092-6566(91)90029-p
OpenAlexW1992732378
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas28

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

Active listening · Anxiety · Audiology · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Dichotic listening · Psychiatry · Task (project management) · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Communication · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Neuroscience · Psychology