EFFECTS OF IMPOSED MONITORING AND BLUNTING STRATEGIES ON EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY

The present study examined the effects of imposed monitoring and blunt ing coping strategies on emotional reactivity in 40 subjects who prepa red themselves for upcoming neutral and aversive slides. Besides subje ctive indices, electrodermal measures and eye blink startle responses were used to evaluate the effect of preparatory strategies. In order t o investigate whether effects of strategies are modulated by individua l differences in coping style, habitual monitoring was assessed with t he Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS, Miller, 1987). It was found th at monitoring instructions resulted in higher levels of subjective anx iety during the anticipation of aversive slides than blunting instruct ions. In addition, when confronted with the frightening and neutral st imuli, monitoring instruction subjects showed smaller electrodermal re activity than blunting instruction subjects. These effects were not fo und to be modulated by habitual coping style. Overall, the startle mea sure yielded no meaningful effects. Taken together, the results seem t o indicate that emotional reactivity under threatening conditions is m ore affected by imposed coping strategies than by habitual coping styl es as indexed by the MBSS.