Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of coping styles on the attentional bias for threatening stimuli. Undergraduate students (N =50) participated in a dot-probe task, in which a pair of words was presented on a computer screen for either 500 ms or 1500 ms; soon after the termination of the display of each word, a dot probe appeared where one of the words had been. Participants were asked to identify the dot's location by pressing a response button as quickly as possible. Some of the stimulus words were threatening words; others were neutral. Results of analyses of variance indicated that each coping style showed a different direction of attention for threatening words. However, the direction of attention for each coping style could not be identified. Although in the 500 ms condition, coping styles did not influence how attention was shifted in response to threat, in the 1500 ms condition, repressors tended to shift attention toward vigilance with respect to threatening stimuli. However, the direction of attention for sensitizers could not be identified.
