Monitoring and blunting and an assessment of different coping styles

Four groups of participants: repressors (low anxiety–high defensiveness, N=15), low-anxious (low-anxiety–low defensiveness, N=13), high-anxious (high anxiety–low defensiveness, N=14) and defensive high-anxious (high anxiety–high defensiveness, N=10), completed the Monitoring and Blunting Style Scale (MBSS; [Miller, S. M. (1987). Monitoring and blunting: validation of a questionnaire to assess styles of information seeking under threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 345–353.] and the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced, (COPE; [Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267–283.]) Repressors scored lower than the other groups in their monitoring scores, but the groups did not differ on their blunting scores. This finding may cast some doubt on the validity of the MBSS, since the majority of research has regarded low monitoring and high blunting styles as equivalent. On the COPE, repressors reported higher levels of coping on only some of the scales and both the COPE and the MBSS appear to be suitable measuring instruments for repressors, who do not appear to complete them in a positive fashion.