Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Repression and self-presentation: when audiences interfere with self-deceptive strategies.

R F Baumeister1, K J Cairns

  • 1Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|May 1, 1992
PubMed
Summary

Repressors avoid threatening feedback privately but dwell on it publicly due to worry about impressions. Non-repressors remain unaffected by evaluation context.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Self-control and its relation to emotions and psychobiology: evidence from a Day Reconstruction Method study.

Journal of behavioral medicine·2012
Same author

The Northern Ireland Public Access Defibrillation (NIPAD) study: effectiveness in urban and rural populations.

Heart (British Cardiac Society)·2008
Same author

The obstacles to maximising the impact of public access defibrillation: an assessment of the dispatch mechanism for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Heart (British Cardiac Society)·2007
Same author

Estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR): predicting progression is dependent on accuracy.

QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians·2007
Same author

The intrinsic appeal of evil: sadism, sensational thrills, and threatened egotism.

Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·2005
Same author

Passion, intimacy, and time: passionate love as a function of change in intimacy.

Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·2005

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Individuals employ defense mechanisms against threatening feedback, such as avoidance or rumination.
  • Repressors, a personality type, manage anxiety by avoiding distressing stimuli.
  • The impact of social context on threat response is a key area in understanding psychological defense.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how social audience influences the processing of threatening feedback in repressors versus non-repressors.
  • To examine the cognitive and behavioral responses to negative self-evaluations under different social conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Participants identified as repressors or non-repressors were given feedback, either threatening or favorable.
  • Feedback was delivered in either a private or public setting.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Reading time, recall of information, and self-reported worry were measured.

    • Main Results:

    • Repressors spent less time reading threatening feedback privately but significantly more time when in public.
    • Public feedback prevented repressors from ignoring threats, leading to increased worry about social impression.
    • Non-repressors' responses were not significantly affected by the evaluation's favorability or the public nature of the situation.
    • Repressors demonstrated enhanced recall for threatening information within a generally favorable evaluation, particularly when defenses were lowered.

    Conclusions:

    • Social presence alters threat processing in repressors, shifting them from avoidance to rumination.
    • Repressors exhibit heightened sensitivity to threatening feedback when their usual defense mechanisms are compromised.
    • Non-repressors display a more consistent response to feedback regardless of social context.