What makes repressors good suppressors?: The effect of trait anxiety

The current study investigated whether individuals with a repressive coping style would differ in their ability to strategically control unwanted memories from nonrepressors within the think/no－think (TNT) paradigm. Results revealed that unlike repressors who exhibited successful memory inhibition regardless of the valence of to－be－suppressed materials, nonrepressors were less successful at suppressing negative memories. Most importantly, however, these group differences were found to be solely due to the effect of trait anxiety rather than interaction of trait anxiety and defensiveness (i.e., repressive coping per se). Individuals with low trait anxiety were better at suppressing negative memories than individuals with high trait anxiety. There also existed individual differences in self-initiated thought control strategies in that individuals with high trait anxiety reported more use of negative avoidance strategy than their counterparts and this strategy was negatively correlated with suppression success. Suggesting it is trait anxiety that matters when strategically control negative memories, the present study provides insight for understanding the voluntary control mechanism of unwanted memories in repressive and nonrepressive copers.

keywords: repressive coping, memory suppression, thought control, think/no－thinkIndividuals often encounter reminders to things that they desire not to think about such as painful loss of loved one or past traumatic events. There would be no problem if it wer, 억압적 대처 유형, 기억 억제, 사고 통제, 생각하기/생각하지않기(Think/no－think) 패러다임

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Article Contents

Vol.26 No.2

What makes repressors good suppressors?: The effect of trait anxiety

Abstract

Reference

Korean Journal of Psychology: General