title: Repressors benefit from reappraising a threatening emotional event.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The malleability of emotion-focused coping was investigated by manipulating the situational context so that dispositional repressors, who typically utilize an avoidant strategy when confronted with a stressor, were led to use reappraisal and then were reexposed to the stressor.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mixed design with one measured between-subjects factor (dispositional repression), two randomized between-subjects factors (performance feedback and coping strategy), and multimodal assessments across phases of the experiment was used.
  
  
  METHODS
  During a face-perception task, participants (170 female and 120 male university students) received bogus performance feedback that was inconsistent with and thus threatening to self-concept. Participants then completed a writing activity encouraging them to perceive a face-perception task as either an invalid (reappraisal) or a valid (control) assessment tool. Afterward, participants continued with the task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A repressive disposition was associated with a defense response (decreased perceived emotion to actors' expressions, increased skin conductance levels, and increased heart rates) during the face-perception task that participants perceived as threatening, but not during reexposure to the event after they had reappraised it as nonthreatening.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research provides a more detailed understanding of the dynamic nature of emotion-focused coping by exploring how the disposition-situation interaction affects self-regulation of emotion.
authors: a Department of Psychology , The University of Mississippi , University , MS 38677 , USA.
authors: Marilyn
authors: M
authors: Mendolia
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014495:Universities
keywords: avoidance; dispositional repression; emotion regulation; reappraisal; threat