Monitoring, imagery, and perception of threat

This article presents two studies that investigated the relationship between a monitoring coping style [as measured with the Miller Behavioural Style Scale (Miller, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 345–353, 1987)] and the perception of threat. In both Study 1 (n = 60) and Study 2 (n = 60), high monitors were found to perceive potential stressful situations as more threatening than low monitors. Study 2 examined whether imagery plays a role in the heightened threat perception of high monitors. The results seem to indicate that high monitors, compared to low monitors, neither have a greater capacity of imagery nor exhibit a greater tendency to elaborate what will happen in a stressful situation.