The discrepant repressor: Differentiation between low anxiety, high anxiety, and repression of anxiety by autonomic–facial–verbal patterns of behavior.

Abstract

This study examined the notion that personality questionnaires can be used to predict different styles of coping with anxiety as expressed by individual differences in patterns of autonomic, verbal, and nonverbal reactions. In line with earlier modifications of the repression-sensitization concept, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS) were used to select four groups of 12 subjects each from a pool of 206 male students in Germany: low-anxious subjects (low MAS, low SDS), repressers (low MAS, high SDS), high-anxious subjects (high MAS, low SDS), and defensive high-anxious subjects (high MAS, high SDS). Several measures of autonomic arousal, facial activity, and self-reported affect were obtained during a potentially anxiety-arousing free-association task and during a number of control conditions, including a funny film. Significant differences in baseline-corrected heart rate and self-reported anxiety as well as rated facial anxiety all indicated that repressers exhibited a discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high heart rate and facial anxiety; lowanxious subjects reported an intermediate level of anxiety, although they showed low heart rate and facial anxiety; high-anxious subjects had consistently high values on all three variables; and the defensive high-anxious group showed an intermediate level of anxious responding. These group differences were specific to the task of freely associating to phrases of mixed (sexual, aggressive, neutral) content (but not to other experimental situations) and to self-reported anxiety (but not to other selfrated emotions or task difficulty), indicating that they reflect individual differences in coping with anxiety. A long-standing problem in emotion re-of correlation led many researchers to believe search in general and anxiety research in par-that the concept of emotion-considered to ticular has been that different "indicators of be a theoretical construct denned by empirical emotion"-verbal report, nonverbal behavior, indicators-is a fiction and has little predictive autonomic arousal-often do not intercor-power. However, if one adopts a system-theorelate in an emotion-laden situation. This lack retic point of view (Powers, 1973; Schwartz, 1982), treating emotions as processes unfolding on different hierarchically organized levels This article is based on the first author's dissertation at of behavior with each level being regulated by the University of Giessen. The basic design of the study a separate control system, one would expect was developed in collaboration with Gary E. Schwartz many discrepancies between the different in-^S KS^* 9 3t thC DePartmem <**«» of emotion because * ™ st ««they The authors are indebted to Gary E. Schwartz for his are regulated by different control systems (cf. valuable suggestions and to RainerAdammek, Isolde Bruss, Asendorpf, 1981). From this perspective, dis-MelanieGraessner, Manfred Manderbach, Frank Schneider, crepancies between different components of tSstud? 6 Stouth...

Repressive and defensive coping during fear and anger.

“…Main effects of defensiveness could also be demonstrated for endocrine parameters such as cortisol responses (Al'Absi, Bongard, & Lovallo, 2000), monocyte (Jamner, Schwartz, & Leigh, 1988), and ␤-endorphin levels (Jamner & Leigh, 1999), as well as for anterior electroencephalographic activation (Kline, Blackhart, & Joiner, 2002;Tomarken & Davidson, 1994). Other researchers found physiological and endocrine effects for repressors only, despite the fact that the defensive high-anxious group was included (Asendorpf & Scherer, 1983;Barger et al, 1997;Brown et al, 1996;Derakshan & Eysenck, 1997;Tremayne & Barry, 1994).…”

“…150, 190) and the prevention of threat to self-esteem from anticipated social rejection (e.g., Asendorpf & Scherer, 1983;Crowne, 1979, p. 169;Weinberger, 1990).…”

Anger and denial as predictors of cardiovascular reactivity in women

“…It was found that subjects who scored high in denial, while self-reporting low anxiety, evidenced reliably greater galvanic skin resistance in response to threat of electric shock than a group which self-reported high anxiety and low denial. Likewise, Asendorpf and Scherer (1983) utilized a stressful phrase association task with male subjects and found that individuals who scored highest Cardiovascular Reactivity 11 in denial also reported the lowest anxiety levels and displayed reliably greater physiological reactivity (in terms of heart rate and pulse volume amplitude) than subjects who reported both low anxiety and low denial. Baer, Collins, Bourianoff, and Ketchel (1979) hypertensives prefer not to disclose information about personal life concerns.…”

Videotape reconstruction of emotions and cognitions related to shyness.

“…Subjects with extremely low scores in shyness were excluded because the validity of these scores might be questionable (cf. Asendorpf &Scherer, 1983).…”