Repressors report fewer intrusions following a laboratory stressor: The role of reduced stressor-relevant concept activation and inhibitory functioning

Abstract

This study investigated whether a repressive coping style is associated with fewer intrusions following an experimentally controlled stressor. Furthermore, we examined whether lower activation of stressor-relevant concepts in long-term memory and better inhibitory functioning may contribute to this association. Extreme-scoring participants on a trait anxiety and a social desirability scale were selected to form repressor (n=35), low anxious (n=15), high anxious (n=30), and defensive (n=21) groups. In line with predictions, repressors reported fewer intrusions following a failure manipulation compared to non-repressors. Furthermore, pre-stressor inhibitory functioning was negatively associated with color-naming interference of stressor-related words. This suggests that overall, higher inhibitory control is related to lower activation of failure-related concepts. However, there was no evidence that concept activation and inhibitory control were responsible for repressors’ lower number of self-reported intrusions.

Keywords:

• repressive coping
• intrusions
• inhibitory control

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grant 452-03-329 of the Foundation for Behavioral and Educational Sciences of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research (NWO). We thank Rafaele Huntjens for her suggestions on an earlier version of this paper, Ellen Jas, who carried out part of the experiment, and those who kindly volunteered to participate in the study.

Notes

1. The STAI-T and MC were administered once again during the experimental session. The test–retest correlations for the STAI-T, r(101)=.80, p<001, and the MC, r(101) = 72, p<001, indicated sufficient stability of both measures.

2. Ideally, we would have obtained a baseline measure of CNI before the stressor occurred in order to be able to attribute differences in concept activation between the groups unequivocally to the stressor. However, we anticipated two problems. First, repeated measurements might render carry-over effects. Second, testing prior to the bogus feedback might undermine the credibility of the bogus failure feedback. Therefore, we decided against such a design.

3. We repeated this analysis with the indices used by Geraerts et al. (2007). Similar results were obtained.