Repression-sensitization and response to the implicit cue requirements of a social situation

It was hypothesized that in an experiment that used verbal recall of threatening statements, repressors would reproduce significantly more of the threatening statements than would sensitizers when the implicit social cue requirement implied the desirability of attending to such statements. SSs were 20 female repressors, as defined by scores on the Repression-Sensitization scale. Ss first heard and then reproduced from memory either a control paragraph or a paragraph intended to imply the desirability of attending to the threatening stimuli. Next, all Ss wer read 20 statements, half of which were intended to be threatening and half of which were nonthreatening. After the Ss had heard all 20 statements, they reproduced from memory as many as they could. Results indicated that when the implicit social cue requirements implied the desirability of attending to the threatening statements, male repressors reproduced more of the statements than did other Ss in accord with predictions. In contrast, female repressors who were exposed to the implicit social due requirements that implied the desirability of attending to the threatening statements reproduced fewer of the statements than did other Ss.