Coping styles and threat processing

In three different experiments we examined the role of coping styles (task-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance coping) in attention, interpretation, and memory for threat-related information. Attentional bias was assessed by an emotional Stroop word color-naming task; interpretive bias, by an on-line inference processing task during the reading of sentences; and explicit memory bias, by sensitivity (d ′) and response criterion (β) scores in a word recognition test. Multiple regression analyses revealed, first, that, a task-oriented coping style was associated with facilitation in color-naming of threat-related words, whereas an avoidance-oriented coping style was associated with interference, which suggests selective attention to threatening information. Second, an emotion-oriented coping style was associated with facilitation of interpretive inferences related to threatening outcomes of ambiguous situations; in contrast, an avoidance coping style was associated with facilitation of non-threat inferences. And, third, there were biases in the recognition of presented and non-presented physical-threat information, with an avoidance style being related to a cautious response criterion, and emotion coping being related to a risky response criterion. These results suggest that avoidance coping is involved in initial attention to threat, followed by late inhibition of threat elaboration and memory; in contrast, emotion coping is involved in delayed further threat elaboration and also reconstruction of non-presented threat-related information.