Date of Award

2002

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Psychology, Clinical.

Supervisor

Newby-Clark, Ian,

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

When placed in a threatening situation, individuals may seek information about the source of their distress (monitor) and/or avoid such information (blunt) in order to cope with it. The choice of coping strategies adopted can be influenced by various situational characteristics. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among the constructs of monitoring, blunting, and one situational characteristic, namely perceived control. Two hundred and seventeen undergraduate students completed the Monitoring-Blunting Questionnaire (MBQ). They were presented with ten stressful scenarios and asked to indicate the extent to which they would seek information (monitor) and avoid information (blunt) in each of the scenarios. In addition, they were asked to indicate how much influence they felt they had over what happens to them for each scenario. The scenarios varied significantly and substantially in ratings of perceived control, even though the authors of the MBQ intended the scale to include only uncontrollable scenarios. No significant relationship was found between the correlation of monitoring and blunting across the ten scenarios and ratings of perceived control. Also, monitoring was more stable across scenarios than blunting. Supplementary analyses revealed a more pronounced relationship between perceived control and blunting as compared to monitoring. These results suggest that identifying both monitoring and blunting as coping styles may not be appropriate, as each has a distinct relationship with perceived control. Furthermore, the consistency of monitoring but not blunting across scenarios suggests that the former is more dispositional, whereas the latter is more situational.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2002 .K38. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 41-04, page: 1204. Adviser: Ian Newby-Clark. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2002.

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