Repressive emotional discreteness after failure

The relationship between coping dispositions and emotional responses after failure in an anagram task was examined. Previous research indicated that only repressers' nondominant emotions were less intense compared to nonrepressers', whereas the dominant emotion was of equal intensity. Using an experimental design in which emotions were measured as they were actually felt, the authors were able to demonstrate that this effect, called repressive emotional discreteness, also is apparent during an emotional event. Compared to nonrepressers, repressers reported roughly the same amount of guilt, which was the dominant emotion after failure, but they showed lower self-rated fear, sadness, and hostility. No differential effects were observed regarding positive emotions after success, indicating that repressive discreteness is restricted to negative emotions. The implications of these findings for explaining the mechanism underlying repression are discussed.