The construct validity of the repressive coping style

Abstract

(from the preface) identified a group of persons who report very low levels of distress or anxiety but who also score high on a measure of defensiveness (repressors) and who concomitantly show high levels of physiological arousal / reviews a very extensive literature and his own recent research pointing to the correlates in social behavior, mental and physical health of the repressor style (preface); (from the chapter) this chapter will examine whether individuals operationally defined as having a repressive coping style actually fail to recognize their own affective responses / certain assumptions about the nature of both the emotion system and unconscious defenses must be articulated, and psychometric issues related to identifying individuals prone to a repressive style must be considered / next, research will be discussed that indicates that repressors, as a group, seem actively engaged in keeping themselves (rather than just other people) convinced that they are not prone to negative affect (chapter); several associated social-cognitive and affective deficits are described that would be expected if repressors' defensiveness is more than a superficial behavior / finally, potential mechanisms underlying these defensive processes and their effects on psychological and physical health are outlined / as in any investigation of construct validity . . . these issues will be pursued by investigating the plausibility of alternative hypotheses and evaluating the convergence of the evidence (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (chapter)