Defensiveness during fear was associated with decreased heart rate variability, and repressive-defensive copers showed lower self-reported but higher behavioral negative affect than others.
Observational
Defensive coping styles are associated with distinct physiological responses, including decreased heart rate variability during fear and increased diastolic blood pressure during anger.
In this study, the relationship between repressive and defensive coping styles and somatovisceral responses as well as emotion self-reports were investigated in 2 situational contexts conceived to induce fear and anger. Anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; L. Laux, P. Glanzmann, P. Schaffner, and C. D. Spielberger, 1981) x Defensiveness (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; D. P. Crowne and D. Marlowe, 1960) x Emotion (fear, anger) moderated regression analyses revealed that compared with baseline during fear, defensiveness was related to a decrease in heart rate variability. Also during fear, repressive-defensive copers had lower self-reports of negative affect but showed higher behavioral negative affect (m. corrugator reactivity) than other participants. During anger, defensiveness was positively related to both diastolic blood pressure reactivity and m. zygomaticus reactivity. Additional analyses showed that emotional responses of repressive-defensive copers were strongly moderated by the situational context.
Pauls et al. (Wed,) reported a observational. Repressive and defensive coping styles vs. Other participants was evaluated on Somatovisceral responses and emotion self-reports. Defensiveness during fear was associated with decreased heart rate variability, and repressive-defensive copers showed lower self-reported but higher behavioral negative affect than others.