THE COLOR NAMING OF SOCIALLY THREATENING WORDS

An emotional Stroop task was used to investigate colour naming of soci ally threatening words in individuals who possess a repressive coping style. The Marlowe-Crowne scale (MC) and the Bendig version of the Tay lor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) were used to select repressor and con trol subjects, who subsequently completed the Stroop task. Repressors (high MC, low MAS) did not show an emotional Stroop effect, whereas lo w anxious (low MC, low MAS), high anxious (low MC, high MAS) and defen sive high anxious (high MC, high MAS) all exhibited retarded colour na ming of emotional words compared with neutral words. These results are discussed in terms of previous research in this area. Copyright (C) 1 996 Elsevier Science Ltd