- Email: [email protected]
Repressive coping, trait anxiety and reported avoidance of negative thoughts
Pergamon
Person. in&id. Off Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 299-303, 1998 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0191-8869/98 519.00+0.00 PII: S0191-?3869(97)00180-3
REPRESSIVE COPING, TRAIT ANXIETY AND REPORTED AVOIDANCE OF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS Lynn B. Myers* Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, University College London Medical School, 48 Riding House Street, London W 1N 8AA, England (Received 30 June 1997)
Summary-This study used the Thought Control Questionnaire to investigate whether individuals with different coping styles report using different strategies to suppress negative thoughts. Repressors (high defensiveness-low trait anxiety) who exhibit an avoidant (repressive) coping style, reported using significantly more distraction strategies and significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups: low anxious (low defensiveness-low trait anxiety), high anxious (low defensiveness-high trait anxiety) and defensive high anxious (high defensiveness-high trait anxiety). High anxious participants reported using more worry strategies than all other groups. These results are discussed in terms of previous research in this area. 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
INTRODUCTION
This study investigated whether individuals with different coping styles report using different strategies to suppress negative thoughts, in particular focusing on individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). There is a substantial body of empirical research which indicates that repressors, who score low on trait anxiety and high on defensiveness, exhibit an avoidant processing style. Firstly, there is evidence to suggest that repressors possess an avoidant attentional style. For example, Fox (1993), using a dot probe task, found that repressors shifted their attention away from socially threatening words. Similarly, results of an emotional Stroop task suggest that repressors avoid socially threatening words (Myers and McKenna, 1996). Secondly, repressors have been shown to have memory deficits for negatively valenced autobiographical material both from childhood and adulthood, using both free and cued recall tasks (Davis, 1987, 1990; Davis and Schwartz, 1987; Myers and Brewin, 1994). Thirdly, research has indicated that repressors possess an information processing style that affects more than their own autobiographical memory. In an intentional recall task of a story, repressors remembered significantly fewer negative phrases than did controls, although there were no differences in the recall of positive or neutral material (Myers and Brewin, 1995). More recently, Myers et al. (in press) found that repressors were superior to nonrepressors at inhibiting the retrieval of a list of negative words using an incidental recall version of the directed forgetting task (see Bjork, 1972, 1989; Epstein, 1972 for a review of the directed forgetting paradigm). In a thorough review of repressive coping, Weinberger (1990) typified repressors as individuals who avoid negative affect. The above studies used one of the most influential methods of operationalising repression as an individual difference variable, the Weinberger et al. (1979) method. This method defines two low anxiety groups (repressors and low anxious) and two high anxiety groups (high anxious and defensive high anxious), using trait anxiety and defensiveness self-report measures. As evidence suggests that repressors have an avoidant processing style and tend to avoid negative affect, it seems feasible that repressors may be using effective methods of banishing unwanted and unpleasant experiences from their thoughts. Although, extensive research by Wegner and colleagues suggests that active thought suppression is not effective and results in an increase in thought frequency (see Wegner, 1989; Wegner and Lane, 1995, for reviews of research on thought suppression), to the author’s knowledge, no-one has investigated what strategies repressors may
*Fax: 0171 323 1459; E-mail: [email protected]. 299
300
Lynn B. Myers
use, or report to use, to suppress their thoughts. It may be hypothesized that as repressors appear to be adept at avoidance, they will use effective strategies for banishing unwanted thoughts. Recently, Wells and Davis (1994) developed a questionnaire (the Thought Control Questionnaire, TCQ) that assesses individual differences in strategies which can be used for controlling unwanted thoughts. The TCQ identifies five strategies: distraction, punishment, social, re-appraisal, and worry. The current study investigated whether the four groups as defined by Weinberger et al. (1979) differed in their thought suppression strategies, using the TCQ. As evidence presented earlier suggests that repressors tend to be avoidant, it was hypothesized that repressors would report using more distraction strategies than all control groups. As punishment appears to be a negative method of thought suppression and repressors tend to avoid negative affect (Weinberger, 1990) and answer self-report measures in a positive fashion (Newton and Contrada, 1994; Myers, 1995, Myers and Brewin, 1996; Myers and Vetere, 1997), it was hypothesized that repressors would report using fewer punishment strategies than control groups. The worry subscale correlates very highly with trait anxiety and neuroticism measures (Wells and Davis, 1994), therefore, it was hypothesized that participants who score high on trait anxiety would report using significantly more worry strategies than participants who score low on trait anxiety. No hypotheses were made for the social or re-appraisal subscales as these two subscales are not particularly negative in connotation and they do not correlate with anxiety measures (Wells and Davis, 1994). METHOD Participants
Participants were 132 undergraduate and postgraduate students from University College London and the University of Reading. Subsequently, a subset of 50 participants were selected on the basis of their scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC, Crowne and Marlowe, 1964) as a measure of defensiveness and the Bendig short form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale (MAS, Bendig, 1956) as a measure of the trait anxiety. Third splits were used to identify the four extreme groups. Repressors (high defensiveness-low trait anxiety, N = 14) scored 6 or under on the MAS and 17 or over on the MC; low anxious participants (low defensiveness-low trait anxiety, N = 12) scored 6 or under on the MAS and 11 or under on the MC; high anxious participants (low defensiveness-high trait anxiety, N = 14) scored 12 or over on the MAS and 12 or under on the MC; defensive high anxious participants (high defensiveness-high trait anxiety, N = 10) scored 12 or over on the MAS and 17 or over on the MC. The mean MAS and MC scores are shown in Table 1. There were 38 females and 12 males, aged between 18 and 42 years (mean age 2 1.40 years), chosen from an initial pool of 132 students. There were no group differences in age, F(3,46) = 1.49, ns. Measures
Participants completed the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ; Wells and Davis, 1994) a 30 item measure designed to assess strategies for controlling unpleasant and unwanted thoughts. Participants are given the following written instructions “most people experience unpleasant and/or unwanted thoughts (in verbal and/or picture form) which can be difficult to control. We are interested in the techniques that you generally use to control such thoughts. Below are a number of things that people do to control their thoughts. Please read each statement carefully and indicate how often you use each technique by circling the appropriate number”. Participants rate each
Table I. Mean scores on the short form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale for the total sample and the Repressor (R), Low Anxious (LA), High Anxious (HA), and Defensive High Anxious (DHA) Groups Experimental
group
Scale
Total Sample
R
LA
HA
MAS MC
9.02 15.32
2.93 22.51
4.92 9.92
15.36 9.64
‘DHA 14.60 19.60
301
Repression and thought suppression Table 2. Thought
Control Questionnaire (TCQ) scores (and standard deviations) for Repressor (LA), High Anxious (HA) and Defensive High Anxious (DHA) Groups
TCQ XOtX
Total Distraction Social Worry Reappraisal Punishment
Different subscripts ***P < 0.001. l*<
(R), Low Anxious
Group R 66.07 (9.14) 18.00” (2.86) 15.29 (4.43) 8.57D (2.87) 15.36 (4.80) 8.86” (1.41)
LA 65.92 (11.41) 14.67h (2.74) 14.48 (5.59) 8.83” (2.41) 16.25 (3.89) 11.5Sh (3.90)
HA 61.50 (9.29) 12.71” (2.67) 11.93 (5.51) 12.5W (2.48) 13.00 (3.33) 11.36’ (2.50)
DHA 62.90 (7.95) 14.40” (3.37) 13.10 (3.67) 9.80” (1.69) 13.40 (2.50) 12.20” (3.16)
F(3,46) 0.74 8.74”’ 0.30 7.74** 2.09 3.54’
indicate group differences (P < 0.05).
statement on a 4-point rating scale labelled: never (I), sometimes (2) often (3), and almost always (4). The TCQ is divided into 5 subscales: distraction (e.g., I call to mind positive images instead), social (e.g., I find out how my friends deal with these thoughts), worry (e.g., I dwell on other worries), punishment (e.g., I shout at myself for having the thought) and re-appraisal (e.g., I try a different way of thinking about it). There is evidence of acceptable internal reliability for the individual subscales and good test-retest reliability (Wells and Davis, 1994). To check whether the subscales were correlated with social desirability, each of the subscales was correlated with MC scores for the overall sample (N = 132). There was a significant positive correlation for the social subscale (I = 0.26, P < 0.05) although this difference was small. The other subscales were not significantly correlated with the MC (re-appraisal, I = 0.08, ns; distraction, r = 0.14, ns; worry r = -0.17, ns; punishment r = -0.14, ns). Initially, group differences in the means were tested for using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Newman-Keuls tests were used for all post hoc comparisons, with significance levels set at P < 0.05. Table 2 shows means and standard deviations for TCQ scores. There was a main effect for group on the distraction subscale, with repressors reporting using significantly more distraction strategies than all other groups. There was a main effect for group on the punishment subscale, with repressors reporting using significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups. There was a main effect for group on the worry subscale, with high anxious participants reporting using significantly more worry strategies than repressor, low anxious and defensive high anxious groups. For the social and re-appraisal subscales and total TCQ score, there were no group differences. DISCUSSION Although there were no group differences in the total amount of thought control strategies used, as predicted there were group differences on individual subscales. Repressors reported significantly more distraction strategies and significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups. It is unlikely that the above results were due to a social desirability for three reasons. Firstly, repressors did not differ from the control groups on the social subscale which was significantly correlated with social desirability. Secondly, repressors differed from control groups for the two subscales, distraction and punishment which were not significantly correlated with social desirability. Thirdly, for the punishment and distraction scores repressors significantly differed from the other group which scored high on social desirability the defensive high anxious. Why did repressors score higher on levels of distraction but report low levels of punishment, lower levels of worry than high anxious, and comparable levels of re-appraisal and social strategies to all other participants? Firstly, even though repressors tend to avoid negative affect, they may
302
Lynn B. Myers
have not considered the distraction items to be too negative to endorse. Secondly, previous research by Myers and Vetere (1996) has suggested that if repressors report themselves in a positive light on some items, they may be more willing to answer other items less favourably. Myers and Vetere (1996) investigated the relationship between repressive coping and adult romantic attachment styles. Repressors reported themselves just as securely attached (positive) as other participants, but they also reported themselves as significantly more avoidantly attached (less positive) than other participants, High anxious participants reported significantly more worry strategies than all other groups, including defensive high anxious participants. These results are consistent with the Myers and Vetere (1996) study on adult romantic attachment styles, where high anxious participants reported being significantly more anxiously attached than all control groups, including defensive high anxious participants. A potential reason why defensive high anxious participants did not report using worry in the current study, or being anxiously attached in the Myers and Vetere (1996) study may be due to their high defensiveness scores on the MC as well as their high anxiety scores. It may not be socially desirable to report high levels of worry or anxious attachment. In fact, the defensive high anxious group have been conceived of as failed repressors. Jamner et al. (1988) believe that the defensive high anxious group may represent repressors whose coping mechanism has become ineffective. Similarly, Bonnano et al. (1991) state “the defensive high anxiety somehow changes the effects of anxiety in ways that are currently little understood. They often emerge from studies as ‘failed’ would-be repressors” (p. 395). Therefore, highly anxious participants, who reported high trait anxiety in the Wells and Davis (1994) study, probably did not include individuals who were highly defensive. In conclusion, this study provides further evidence of repressors’ avoidant style in that they report suppressing unwanted thoughts by distraction. As repressors appear to be effective in avoiding negative affect, distraction may be an effective method of thought suppression. However, as evidence also suggests that repressors answer self-report questionnaires in an overly positive fashion (Myers and Vetere, 1997) future studies involving cognitive tasks should investigate whether repressors are just self-reporting using distraction or whether they do use distraction more effectively, as suggested by previous research.
REFERENCES Bendig, A. W. (1956). The development of a short form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 20, 384.
Bjork, R. A. (1972). Theoretical implications of directed forgetting. In A. W. Melton and E. Martin (Ed.), Codingprocesses in human memory (pp. 217-235). Washington: Winston. Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in human memory. In H. 0. Roedinger III and F. I. M. Craik (Ed.), Varieties of memory and consciousness (pp. 309-330). Hillsdale, New York: Erlbaum. Bonnano, G. A., Davis, P. J., Singer, J. L., & Schwartz, G. E. (1991). The repressor personality and avoidant information processing: A dichotic listening study. Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 386-401. Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. A. (1964). The approval motive: studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley. Davis, P. J. (1987). Repression and the inaccessibility of affective memories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 585-593.
Davis, P. J. (1990). Repression and the inaccessibility of emotional memories. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), Repression anddissociation (pp. 387-404). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Davis, P. J., & Schwartz, G. E. (1987). Repression and the inaccessibility of affective memories. Journal of Personaliry and Social Psychology, 52, 155-162.
Epstein, W. (1972). Mechanisms of directed forgetting. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 6, pp. 147-191). New York: Academic Press. Fox, E. (1993). Allocation of visual attention and anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 207-215. Jamner, L. D., Schwartz, G. E., & Leigh, H. (1988). The relationship between repressive and defensive coping styles and monocyte, eosinophile and serum glucose levels: Support for the opiod peptide hypothesis of repression. Psychosomatic Medicine, 50, 567-575.
Myers, L. B. (1995). The relationship between alexithymia, repression, defensiveness and trait anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 489-492.
Myers, L. B., & Brewin, C. R. (1994). Recall of early experience and the repressive coping style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 288-292.
Myers, L. B., & Brewin, C. R. (1995). Repressive coping and the recall of emotional material. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 637-642.
Myers, L. B., & Brewin, C. R. (1996). Illusions of well-being and the repressive coping style. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33,443457.
Myers, L. B., Brewin, C. R., & Power, M. J. In press. Repressive coping and the directed forgetting of emotional material. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Repression
and thought
suppression
Myers, L. B., & McKenna, F. P. (1996). The colour naming of socially threatening words. Differences,
303 Personalify
Myers, L. B., & Vetere, A. L. (1996). Romantic attachment in individuals with a repressive coping style. British
Psychological
Society,
Proceedings
British
Journal
of Health
2.245-251.
Newton, T. L., & Contrada, R. L. (1994). Alexithymia and repression: Contrasting emotion-focused coping styles. somatic
of the
4, 61.
Myers, L. B., & Vetere, A. L. (1997). Repressors’ responses to health-related questionnaires. Psychology,
and Individual
6, 801-803.
56, 451-462. (1989). White bears and unwanted
Psycho-
Medicine,
Wegner, D. M. thoughts. New York: Viking/Penguin. Wegner, D. M., & Lane, J. D. (1995). From secrecy to psychopathology. In J. M. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure and health. Washington: APA. Weinberger, D. A. (1990). The construct validity of the repressive coping style. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), Repression and dissociation (pp. 337-386). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Weinberger, D. A., Schwartz, G. E., & Davidson, R. J. (1979). Low-anxious, high anxious and repressive coping styles: Psychometric patterns and behavioral responses to stress. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 369-380. Wells, A., & Davis, M. I. (1994). The thought control questionnaire: A measure of individual differences in the control of unwanted thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 871-878.
Person. in&id. Off Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 299-303, 1998 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0191-8869/98 519.00+0.00 PII: S0191-?3869(97)00180-3
REPRESSIVE COPING, TRAIT ANXIETY AND REPORTED AVOIDANCE OF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS Lynn B. Myers* Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, University College London Medical School, 48 Riding House Street, London W 1N 8AA, England (Received 30 June 1997)
Summary-This study used the Thought Control Questionnaire to investigate whether individuals with different coping styles report using different strategies to suppress negative thoughts. Repressors (high defensiveness-low trait anxiety) who exhibit an avoidant (repressive) coping style, reported using significantly more distraction strategies and significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups: low anxious (low defensiveness-low trait anxiety), high anxious (low defensiveness-high trait anxiety) and defensive high anxious (high defensiveness-high trait anxiety). High anxious participants reported using more worry strategies than all other groups. These results are discussed in terms of previous research in this area. 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
INTRODUCTION
This study investigated whether individuals with different coping styles report using different strategies to suppress negative thoughts, in particular focusing on individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). There is a substantial body of empirical research which indicates that repressors, who score low on trait anxiety and high on defensiveness, exhibit an avoidant processing style. Firstly, there is evidence to suggest that repressors possess an avoidant attentional style. For example, Fox (1993), using a dot probe task, found that repressors shifted their attention away from socially threatening words. Similarly, results of an emotional Stroop task suggest that repressors avoid socially threatening words (Myers and McKenna, 1996). Secondly, repressors have been shown to have memory deficits for negatively valenced autobiographical material both from childhood and adulthood, using both free and cued recall tasks (Davis, 1987, 1990; Davis and Schwartz, 1987; Myers and Brewin, 1994). Thirdly, research has indicated that repressors possess an information processing style that affects more than their own autobiographical memory. In an intentional recall task of a story, repressors remembered significantly fewer negative phrases than did controls, although there were no differences in the recall of positive or neutral material (Myers and Brewin, 1995). More recently, Myers et al. (in press) found that repressors were superior to nonrepressors at inhibiting the retrieval of a list of negative words using an incidental recall version of the directed forgetting task (see Bjork, 1972, 1989; Epstein, 1972 for a review of the directed forgetting paradigm). In a thorough review of repressive coping, Weinberger (1990) typified repressors as individuals who avoid negative affect. The above studies used one of the most influential methods of operationalising repression as an individual difference variable, the Weinberger et al. (1979) method. This method defines two low anxiety groups (repressors and low anxious) and two high anxiety groups (high anxious and defensive high anxious), using trait anxiety and defensiveness self-report measures. As evidence suggests that repressors have an avoidant processing style and tend to avoid negative affect, it seems feasible that repressors may be using effective methods of banishing unwanted and unpleasant experiences from their thoughts. Although, extensive research by Wegner and colleagues suggests that active thought suppression is not effective and results in an increase in thought frequency (see Wegner, 1989; Wegner and Lane, 1995, for reviews of research on thought suppression), to the author’s knowledge, no-one has investigated what strategies repressors may
*Fax: 0171 323 1459; E-mail: [email protected]. 299
300
Lynn B. Myers
use, or report to use, to suppress their thoughts. It may be hypothesized that as repressors appear to be adept at avoidance, they will use effective strategies for banishing unwanted thoughts. Recently, Wells and Davis (1994) developed a questionnaire (the Thought Control Questionnaire, TCQ) that assesses individual differences in strategies which can be used for controlling unwanted thoughts. The TCQ identifies five strategies: distraction, punishment, social, re-appraisal, and worry. The current study investigated whether the four groups as defined by Weinberger et al. (1979) differed in their thought suppression strategies, using the TCQ. As evidence presented earlier suggests that repressors tend to be avoidant, it was hypothesized that repressors would report using more distraction strategies than all control groups. As punishment appears to be a negative method of thought suppression and repressors tend to avoid negative affect (Weinberger, 1990) and answer self-report measures in a positive fashion (Newton and Contrada, 1994; Myers, 1995, Myers and Brewin, 1996; Myers and Vetere, 1997), it was hypothesized that repressors would report using fewer punishment strategies than control groups. The worry subscale correlates very highly with trait anxiety and neuroticism measures (Wells and Davis, 1994), therefore, it was hypothesized that participants who score high on trait anxiety would report using significantly more worry strategies than participants who score low on trait anxiety. No hypotheses were made for the social or re-appraisal subscales as these two subscales are not particularly negative in connotation and they do not correlate with anxiety measures (Wells and Davis, 1994). METHOD Participants
Participants were 132 undergraduate and postgraduate students from University College London and the University of Reading. Subsequently, a subset of 50 participants were selected on the basis of their scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC, Crowne and Marlowe, 1964) as a measure of defensiveness and the Bendig short form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale (MAS, Bendig, 1956) as a measure of the trait anxiety. Third splits were used to identify the four extreme groups. Repressors (high defensiveness-low trait anxiety, N = 14) scored 6 or under on the MAS and 17 or over on the MC; low anxious participants (low defensiveness-low trait anxiety, N = 12) scored 6 or under on the MAS and 11 or under on the MC; high anxious participants (low defensiveness-high trait anxiety, N = 14) scored 12 or over on the MAS and 12 or under on the MC; defensive high anxious participants (high defensiveness-high trait anxiety, N = 10) scored 12 or over on the MAS and 17 or over on the MC. The mean MAS and MC scores are shown in Table 1. There were 38 females and 12 males, aged between 18 and 42 years (mean age 2 1.40 years), chosen from an initial pool of 132 students. There were no group differences in age, F(3,46) = 1.49, ns. Measures
Participants completed the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ; Wells and Davis, 1994) a 30 item measure designed to assess strategies for controlling unpleasant and unwanted thoughts. Participants are given the following written instructions “most people experience unpleasant and/or unwanted thoughts (in verbal and/or picture form) which can be difficult to control. We are interested in the techniques that you generally use to control such thoughts. Below are a number of things that people do to control their thoughts. Please read each statement carefully and indicate how often you use each technique by circling the appropriate number”. Participants rate each
Table I. Mean scores on the short form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale for the total sample and the Repressor (R), Low Anxious (LA), High Anxious (HA), and Defensive High Anxious (DHA) Groups Experimental
group
Scale
Total Sample
R
LA
HA
MAS MC
9.02 15.32
2.93 22.51
4.92 9.92
15.36 9.64
‘DHA 14.60 19.60
301
Repression and thought suppression Table 2. Thought
Control Questionnaire (TCQ) scores (and standard deviations) for Repressor (LA), High Anxious (HA) and Defensive High Anxious (DHA) Groups
TCQ XOtX
Total Distraction Social Worry Reappraisal Punishment
Different subscripts ***P < 0.001. l*<
(R), Low Anxious
Group R 66.07 (9.14) 18.00” (2.86) 15.29 (4.43) 8.57D (2.87) 15.36 (4.80) 8.86” (1.41)
LA 65.92 (11.41) 14.67h (2.74) 14.48 (5.59) 8.83” (2.41) 16.25 (3.89) 11.5Sh (3.90)
HA 61.50 (9.29) 12.71” (2.67) 11.93 (5.51) 12.5W (2.48) 13.00 (3.33) 11.36’ (2.50)
DHA 62.90 (7.95) 14.40” (3.37) 13.10 (3.67) 9.80” (1.69) 13.40 (2.50) 12.20” (3.16)
F(3,46) 0.74 8.74”’ 0.30 7.74** 2.09 3.54’
indicate group differences (P < 0.05).
statement on a 4-point rating scale labelled: never (I), sometimes (2) often (3), and almost always (4). The TCQ is divided into 5 subscales: distraction (e.g., I call to mind positive images instead), social (e.g., I find out how my friends deal with these thoughts), worry (e.g., I dwell on other worries), punishment (e.g., I shout at myself for having the thought) and re-appraisal (e.g., I try a different way of thinking about it). There is evidence of acceptable internal reliability for the individual subscales and good test-retest reliability (Wells and Davis, 1994). To check whether the subscales were correlated with social desirability, each of the subscales was correlated with MC scores for the overall sample (N = 132). There was a significant positive correlation for the social subscale (I = 0.26, P < 0.05) although this difference was small. The other subscales were not significantly correlated with the MC (re-appraisal, I = 0.08, ns; distraction, r = 0.14, ns; worry r = -0.17, ns; punishment r = -0.14, ns). Initially, group differences in the means were tested for using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Newman-Keuls tests were used for all post hoc comparisons, with significance levels set at P < 0.05. Table 2 shows means and standard deviations for TCQ scores. There was a main effect for group on the distraction subscale, with repressors reporting using significantly more distraction strategies than all other groups. There was a main effect for group on the punishment subscale, with repressors reporting using significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups. There was a main effect for group on the worry subscale, with high anxious participants reporting using significantly more worry strategies than repressor, low anxious and defensive high anxious groups. For the social and re-appraisal subscales and total TCQ score, there were no group differences. DISCUSSION Although there were no group differences in the total amount of thought control strategies used, as predicted there were group differences on individual subscales. Repressors reported significantly more distraction strategies and significantly fewer punishment strategies than all control groups. It is unlikely that the above results were due to a social desirability for three reasons. Firstly, repressors did not differ from the control groups on the social subscale which was significantly correlated with social desirability. Secondly, repressors differed from control groups for the two subscales, distraction and punishment which were not significantly correlated with social desirability. Thirdly, for the punishment and distraction scores repressors significantly differed from the other group which scored high on social desirability the defensive high anxious. Why did repressors score higher on levels of distraction but report low levels of punishment, lower levels of worry than high anxious, and comparable levels of re-appraisal and social strategies to all other participants? Firstly, even though repressors tend to avoid negative affect, they may
302
Lynn B. Myers
have not considered the distraction items to be too negative to endorse. Secondly, previous research by Myers and Vetere (1996) has suggested that if repressors report themselves in a positive light on some items, they may be more willing to answer other items less favourably. Myers and Vetere (1996) investigated the relationship between repressive coping and adult romantic attachment styles. Repressors reported themselves just as securely attached (positive) as other participants, but they also reported themselves as significantly more avoidantly attached (less positive) than other participants, High anxious participants reported significantly more worry strategies than all other groups, including defensive high anxious participants. These results are consistent with the Myers and Vetere (1996) study on adult romantic attachment styles, where high anxious participants reported being significantly more anxiously attached than all control groups, including defensive high anxious participants. A potential reason why defensive high anxious participants did not report using worry in the current study, or being anxiously attached in the Myers and Vetere (1996) study may be due to their high defensiveness scores on the MC as well as their high anxiety scores. It may not be socially desirable to report high levels of worry or anxious attachment. In fact, the defensive high anxious group have been conceived of as failed repressors. Jamner et al. (1988) believe that the defensive high anxious group may represent repressors whose coping mechanism has become ineffective. Similarly, Bonnano et al. (1991) state “the defensive high anxiety somehow changes the effects of anxiety in ways that are currently little understood. They often emerge from studies as ‘failed’ would-be repressors” (p. 395). Therefore, highly anxious participants, who reported high trait anxiety in the Wells and Davis (1994) study, probably did not include individuals who were highly defensive. In conclusion, this study provides further evidence of repressors’ avoidant style in that they report suppressing unwanted thoughts by distraction. As repressors appear to be effective in avoiding negative affect, distraction may be an effective method of thought suppression. However, as evidence also suggests that repressors answer self-report questionnaires in an overly positive fashion (Myers and Vetere, 1997) future studies involving cognitive tasks should investigate whether repressors are just self-reporting using distraction or whether they do use distraction more effectively, as suggested by previous research.
REFERENCES Bendig, A. W. (1956). The development of a short form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 20, 384.
Bjork, R. A. (1972). Theoretical implications of directed forgetting. In A. W. Melton and E. Martin (Ed.), Codingprocesses in human memory (pp. 217-235). Washington: Winston. Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive mechanism in human memory. In H. 0. Roedinger III and F. I. M. Craik (Ed.), Varieties of memory and consciousness (pp. 309-330). Hillsdale, New York: Erlbaum. Bonnano, G. A., Davis, P. J., Singer, J. L., & Schwartz, G. E. (1991). The repressor personality and avoidant information processing: A dichotic listening study. Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 386-401. Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. A. (1964). The approval motive: studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley. Davis, P. J. (1987). Repression and the inaccessibility of affective memories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 585-593.
Davis, P. J. (1990). Repression and the inaccessibility of emotional memories. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), Repression anddissociation (pp. 387-404). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Davis, P. J., & Schwartz, G. E. (1987). Repression and the inaccessibility of affective memories. Journal of Personaliry and Social Psychology, 52, 155-162.
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