Emotional information processing in repressors: The vigilance–avoidance theory

A vigilance–avoidance theory of the repressive coping style (low trait anxiety and high defensiveness) is presented. The new theory attempts to account for several key findings, including the discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high behavioural and physiological indicators of anxiety shown by individuals with a repressive coping style. According to the theory, repressors have an initial rapid vigilant response triggering behavioural and physiological responses and involving attentional and interpretive biases to self-relevant threat stimuli. These biases may be based on negative self-relevant schematic information. This initial vigilant stage is followed by an avoidance stage involving avoidant cognitive biases (attentional, interpretive, and memory) that inhibit the conscious experience of anxiety. Future research should examine systematically the time course of repressors’ reactions to threatening and non-threatening stimuli.     

Interpretive biases for ambiguous information in body dysmorphic disorder

Anxiety-disordered patients and individuals with high trait anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous information as threatening. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether interpretive biases would also occur in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is characterized by a preoccupation with imagined defects in one's appearance. We tested whether BDD participants, compared with obsessive-compulsive disorder participants and healthy controls, would choose threatening interpretations for ambiguous body-related, ambiguous social, and general scenarios. As we hypothesized, BDD participants exhibited a negative interpretive bias for body-related scenarios and for social scenarios, whereas the other groups did not. Moreover, both clinical groups exhibited a negative interpretive bias for general scenarios.     

Children's self-reported coping strategies: The role of defensiveness and repressive adaptation

Abstract

This study examined differences in self-reported coping strategies across children classified according to Weinberger et al.'s (1979) adaptive style paradigm. Consistent with the larger literature, it was hypothesized that repressors (i.e. characterized by high self-reported defensiveness and low self-reported distress) would endorse fewer behaviorally and cognitively avoidant coping strategies than other adaptive style groups. Participants included 134 children, ranging in age from 10 to 13 (M=11.26, sd=.59), who completed measures of defensiveness, trait anxiety, and coping. Consistent with the hypotheses, results indicated significantly lower endorsement of avoidant coping strategies, and significantly higher endorsement of approach-oriented strategies among repressors, but no significant differences across adaptive style groups for other forms of coping. Results indicate that, consistent with other indicators of psychological functioning, the measurement of coping strategies is subject to the effects of socially desirable responding. Further, results provide evidence that measures of coping may be contaminated by items reflecting adjustment problems.     

Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology

Abstract

The majority of studies in health psychology use self-report measures. However, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that this methodology may be problematic for a significant minority of the population: individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). Repressors, who fail to report negative affect, answer many self-report measures in a positive fashion. Research has identified an association between repressors, who are identified by low trait anxiety scores and high defensiveness scores, and adverse health outcomes. Therefore, repressors are an important group for health psychologists to investigate. Health psychology research should use more than one method of data collection in an attempt to unravel this difficult methodological problem.     

Experimental modification of interpretation bias in socially anxious children: Changes in interpretation, anticipated interpersonal anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms

We report on an experimental manipulation of interpretation bias in socially anxious youths. A non-clinical sample of 10–11-year-olds selected for high social anxiety was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. This group was subsequently less likely to endorse negative interpretations of new ambiguous social situations than children in a test–retest condition. Children who received interpretation training also showed reduced trait social anxiety and reported significantly less anxiety about an anticipated interpersonal encounter, compared with the control group.     

Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.     

Trait anxiety, defensiveness and selective processing of threat: an investigation using two measures of attentional bias

Attentional biases for threat were examined in a non-clinical sample (N=60), with each participant tested on both the modified Stroop colour-naming and dot probe tasks. Three groups were selected on the basis of trait anxiety and social desirability scale (SDS) scores: “low anxiety” (LA: low trait, low SDS), “repressor” (REP: low trait, high SDS) and “high anxiety” (HA: high trait, low SDS). Results from the colour-naming task suggested that high levels of defensiveness (in combination with low trait anxiety) were associated with greater avoidance of threat. The REP group showed less interference in colour-naming threat than neutral words; whereas the HA group showed increased interference due to threat words. On the dot probe task, there was a general tendency for this non-clinical sample as a whole to show avoidance of social threat relative to neutral words, but there was no bias for physical threat words. Avoidance of social threat was significant only within the REP group. No relationships were found between the measures of cognitive bias from the two tasks, suggesting different underlying mechanisms. Results are discussed in relation to previous findings and theoretical views of the effects of anxiety and defensiveness on the processing of threat.     

Predicting Burnout Among HIV/AIDS and Oncology Health Care Workers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between repressive coping, controllability, self-esteem and comparative optimism for health-related events. Repressors (low trait anxiety-high defensiveness) compared with both (a) specific control groups on anxiety and defensiveness (e.g., low-anxious, high-anxious and defensive high anxious) and (b) total nonrepressors were significantly more comparatively optimistic for health-related events. Repressors remained significantly more comparatively optimistic than total nonrepressors when self-esteem was partialled out.

For individual events, repressors differed in comparative optimism for events which were rated as high controllability. It is concluded that repressors are exhibiting comparative optimism over and above nonrepressor groups for events which are rated as controllable. These results suggest that comparative optimism findings may be exaggerated by not controlling for the disproportionate influence of repressors in skewing sample means. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.     

The effects of culture and self-construal on responses to threatening health information

Objective: The current studies examined if cultural and self-construal differences in self-enhancement extended to defensive responses to health threats.

Design: Responses to fictitious medical diagnoses were compared between Asian-Americans and European-North Americans in Experiment 1 and between Canadians primed with an interdependent versus an independent self-construal in Experiment 3. In Experiment 2, the responses of Chinese and Canadians who were either heavy or light soft drink consumers were assessed after reading an article linking soft drink consumption to insulin resistance.

Main outcome measure: The primary-dependent measure reflected participants’ defensiveness about threatening versus nonthreatening health information.

Results: In Experiment 1, all participants responded more defensively to an unfavourable than a favourable diagnosis; however, Asian-Americans responded less defensively than did European-North Americans. In Experiment 2, all high soft drink consumers were less convinced by the threatening information than were low soft drink consumers; however, among high consumers, Chinese changed their self-reported consumption levels less than did European-Canadians. In Experiment 3, interdependence-primed participants responded less defensively to an unfavourable diagnosis than did independence-primed participants.

Conclusion: Defensive reactions to threatening health information were found consistently; however, self-enhancement was more pronounced in individuals with Western cultural backgrounds or independent self-construals.     

Manipulation of focus of attention and its effects on anxiety in high-anxious individuals and repressors

Abstract

There were four groups of participants: low-anxious (low anxiety-low defensiveness), repressors (low anxiety-high defensiveness), high-anxious (high anxiety-low defensiveness), and defensive high-anxious (high anxiety-high defensiveness). They were exposed to self-focus and other-focus conditions, and self-report, physiological, and behavioural measures of anxiety were recorded. The focus manipulation (self vs. other) was effective, with all four groups having higher self-reported anxiety in the self-focus condition. It was found that self-focused attention accounted for a significant amount of variation in self-reported anxiety. The findings were discussed within the theoretical framework proposed by Eysenck (1997).     

Look before you leap: the role of negative urgency in appraisals of ambiguous and unambiguous scenarios in individuals high in generalized anxiety disorder symptoms

Negative interpretation bias, the propensity to make threatening interpretations of ambiguous information, is associated with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Apart from its relationship with intolerance of uncertainty (IU), little is known about what explains the presence of this cognitive bias in GAD. One factor may be negative urgency (NU), the tendency to take rash action when distressed, which is related to GAD symptoms and to cognitive biases in nonclinical populations. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between NU and interpretation bias in individuals high in GAD symptoms (N = 111). IU, trait anxiety, and other forms of impulsivity were examined concurrently as competing correlates of interpretation bias. Greater NU and IU were found to be unique correlates of greater threatening interpretations of ambiguous scenarios. Greater NU was also a unique correlate of greater threatening interpretations of negative and positive scenarios. No other forms of impulsivity were uniquely related to interpretation bias. The findings suggest that greater NU may have a role in the tendency for individuals high in GAD symptoms to make threatening interpretations in response to ambiguous scenarios, overtly threatening situations, and situations without indication of threat or danger. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cultural evidence for interpretation bias as a feature of social anxiety in Chinese adolescents

Background and Objectives: Interpretation bias (IB), defined as the tendency to interpret ambiguous social situations in a threatening manner, has increasingly been studied in children and adolescents. Compared to Western samples, the relation between IB and social anxiety in Chinese youth has received little attention. The present study was to mainly examine the relationship between IB and social anxiety among Chinese adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional design was utilized.

Methods: IB, measured by the Adolescents’ Interpretation Bias Questionnaire (AIBQ), and social anxiety were surveyed among a group of high socially anxious Chinese adolescents (n?=?25) and a control group (n?=?29). Participants were asked to rate the likelihood of interpretations coming to mind in social/non-social situations and to choose the most believable interpretation.

Results: The high social anxiety group had more negative interpretations and beliefs in social situations, and the interpretation bias was particular to social anxiety versus depression. Additionally, the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis was supported; the high anxious group showed interpretation bias in social situations, but didn’t have more negative interpretations of non-social situations, after controlling for depression.

Conclusions: The present study yielded comparable findings as found in Western samples regarding the relation between IB and social anxiety.     

List of Reviewers

ABSTRACT

Anxious individuals report disproportionately negative expectations concerning the future, termed the negative expectancy bias. In contrast, ageing is associated with an inflated expectancy for positive future events. A recent study [Steinman, S. A., Smyth, F. L., Bucks, R. S., MacLeod, C., &; Teachman, B. A. (2013). Anxiety-linked expectancy bias across the adult lifespan. Cognition and Emotion, 27, 345–355. doi:10.1080/02699931.2012.711743] found using an interpretation bias task, a negative expectancy bias in young adults and positive expectancy bias in older adults with high trait anxiety. Extending this, the current study examined expectancy bias for positive, negative and ambiguously emotionally toned information in younger and older adults with clinical levels of depression and anxiety to community control groups, thus allowing examination of both disorder status and age on biases. Clinical participants reported a pervasive tendency to expect negative events relative to positive regardless of whether the current scenarios were positive, negative or ambiguous. Older adults showed greater expectancy for future positive scenarios when the initial scenario was negative or ambiguous. Age moderated the negative expectancy bias shown by clinical participants for ambiguous scenarios. Clinical disorders in older adults attenuated the positive expectancy bias that was otherwise strong in community participants. These findings provide further evidence for age differences in processing of emotionally toned information, with older adults showing a greater expectancy for positive future events.     

Attentional biases to threat in social anxiety disorder: time to focus our attention elsewhere?

Background: Cognitive models propose that attentional biases to threat contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, the specific characteristics of such biases are still object to debate.

Objectives: The current study aimed to disentangle effects of trait and state social anxiety on attention allocation towards social stimuli.

Methods: Participants with SAD (n?=?67) and healthy controls (n?=?62) completed three visual search tasks while their eye movements were recorded. Half of the participants in each group were randomly assigned to a state anxiety induction.

Results: Contrary to our predictions, neither trait nor state social anxiety was associated with a facilitated attention to or a delayed disengagement from threat. However, participants with SAD did show reduced fixation durations for threatening stimuli, indicating an avoidance of threat. Induction of state anxiety led to an increased distractibility by threat.

Conclusions: We suggest that attention allocation in SAD is characterized by an avoidant rather than a vigilant attentional bias. Accordingly, our results contradict previous results that associate SAD with facilitated attention to threat and existing approaches to modify attentional biases, that aim to decrease attention towards threatening stimuli.     

Did the instigator intend to provoke? A key moderator in the relation between trait aggression and aggressive behavior

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross‐situational consistency of trait aggression in provoking situations where an instigator (1) clearly intended to provoke, (2) clearly intended not to provoke, or (3) where presence of intention was ambiguous. It was hypothesized that cross‐situational consistency would be substantial, and that trait aggression would have the greatest impact on aggressive behavior in ambiguous situations. Participants were 80 female and 38 male undergraduate students. They completed the Aggression Questionnaire [Buss and Perry, J Pers Soc Psychol, 1992, pp. 452], read a set of 24 vignettes depicting conflict situations and rated their perceived likelihood of becoming angry and aggressive in those situations. An overall cross‐situational consistency correlation coefficient of r=.47 was found. It was also found that trait aggression had a significantly greater effect on the likelihood of aggressive responses in the ambiguous and intentional situations than it did in the unintentional situations. These results are discussed in relation to trait activation and hostile attribution bias. Aggr. Behav. 30:409–424, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Detecting Anxiety and Defensiveness from Visual and Auditory Cues

ABSTRACT Defensive individuals have been shown to differ from non-defensive individuals on a number of physiological and behavioral measures. We report two studies on observers' inferences of defensiveness, and the contribution of communication channels in the inference of defensiveness. Observers judged high and low state anxious segments of high and low trait anxious defensive and nondefensive individuals. Accurate assessments were made of (a) defensiveness, (b) state anxiety, and (c) trait anxiety: Individuals with higher levels of each variable were perceived as more anxious compared with the lower level. Effects for defensiveness and state anxiety were greater in audio-only segments, while effects for trait anxiety were greater in video-only segments. Inferences of defensiveness were greater at higher levels of state anxiety and trait anxiety. Low trait anxious defensive individuals were perceived as more anxious than the true low trait anxious. Results for defensiveness and trait anxiety were replicated in Study 2, and observers' perceptions of state anxiety matched individuals' self-reports: Defensive individuals with maximal differences between high and low state anxiety were seen as more anxious in high state anxiety, while defensive individuals with minimal differences between high and low state anxiety were regarded as less anxious in high state anxiety.     

Anxiety symptom interpretation in high-anxious,defensive high-anxious,low-anxious and repressor sport performers

Abstract

For the first time in a sport setting this study examined the intensity and direction of the competitive state anxiety response in collegiate athletes as a function of four different coping styles: high-anxious, defensive high-anxious, low-anxious and repressors. Specifically, the study predicted that repressors would interpret competitive state anxiety symptoms as more facilitative compared to high-anxious, defensive high-anxious, and low-anxious performers. Separate Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) were performed on the intensity and direction subscales of the modified Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). A significant main effect was identified for trait worry revealing that low trait anxious athletes reported lower intensities of cognitive and somatic anxiety and higher self-confidence and interpreted these as more facilitative than high trait anxious athletes. The prediction that performers with a repressive coping style would interpret state anxiety symptoms as more facilitative than performers with non-repressive coping styles was not supported.     

Interpretive biases for ambiguous stimuli in social anxiety.

A growing body of literature suggests that individuals with high levels of general anxiety form threatening interpretations of ambiguous events. Although theoretical formulations of pathological social anxiety emphasize the importance of a negative interpretive-style in the etiology and maintenance of the disorder, we are unaware of any study that documents this presumed phenomenon. To address this issue, we assessed for possible interpretive biases in a group of high and low socially-anxious students. The results indicated that socially-anxious subjects showed more threatening interpretations of ambiguous, interpersonal events when compared to the low-anxious participants. However, this bias was marked not so much by an outright negative interpretation style, but rather by a failure of the socially-anxious subjects to show a positive interpretation as was evinced by the low-anxious individuals. These group differences in interpretive style appeared to be influenced by trait aspects of social anxiety rather than differences in current mood state. No group differences emerged in interpretations of events that involved non-personal stimuli suggesting there is content specificity in the interpretive biases associated with social-anxiety.     

Attention training toward and away from threat in social phobia: effects on subjective, behavioral, and physiological measures of anxiety

Social phobics exhibit an attentional bias for threat in probe detection and probe discrimination paradigms. Attention training programs, in which probes always replace nonthreatening cues, reduce attentional bias for threat and self-reported social anxiety. However, researchers have seldom included behavioral measures of anxiety reduction, and have never taken physiological measures of anxiety reduction. In the present study, we trained individuals with generalized social phobia (n = 57) to attend to threat cues (attend to threat), to attend to positive cues (attend to positive), or to alternately attend to both (control condition). We assessed not only self-reported social anxiety, but also behavioral and physiological measures of social anxiety. Participants trained to attend to nonthreatening cues demonstrated significantly greater reductions in self-reported, behavioral, and physiological measures of anxiety than did participants from the attend to threat and control conditions.     

Anxiety and defensiveness: individual differences in affective startle modulation

Anxious individuals selectively attend to threatening information, and defensiveness may influence the experience and expression of anxiety. Fifty-eight undergraduates scoring high and low on measures of anxiety and defensiveness viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. Acoustic startle probes were presented 60, 240, or 2,000 ms after picture onset. At 60 ms and 240 ms, repressors (low anxiety, high defensiveness) showed weaker blinks during both pleasant and unpleasant compared to neutral pictures, suggesting enhanced early attention to affective stimuli, regardless of valence. At 2,000 ms, high-anxious but not low anxious participants showed potentiated startle responses during unpleasant compared to pleasant pictures. Although this result replicated previous research on anxiety and valence modulation of startle, exploratory analyses suggested that the valence effect was restricted to trait anxious individuals tending toward a defensive coping style. Across probe conditions, defensiveness was associated with heightened startle reactivity independent of self-reported anxiety and foreground stimulus characteristics.