Emotional information processing in repressors: The vigilance–avoidance theory

TLDR

The study proposes a vigilance–avoidance theory of repressive coping, aiming to explain the mismatch between low self‑reported anxiety and high behavioural/physiological anxiety indicators, and calls for systematic investigation of repressors’ time‑course responses to threat. The theory posits that repressors first experience a rapid vigilant response with attentional and interpretive biases toward self‑relevant threat, then shift to an avoidance stage marked by cognitive biases that suppress conscious anxiety. The theory accounts for the observed discrepancy between low self‑reported anxiety and high behavioural/physiological anxiety indicators in repressors.

Abstract

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.