Styles of information seeking under threat: Personal and situational aspects of monitoring and blunting

doi:10.1016/0191-8869(91)90097-U

Personality and Individual Differences

Volume 12, Issue 2, 1991, Pages 141-149

https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(91)90097-U Get rights and content

Abstract

Using the Miller Behavioral Style Scale with 47 introductory psychology students we investigated relations between the concepts of monitoring (information seeking under threat) and blunting (information avoidance) with some relevant coping and personality variables. In addition, we studied their ecological significance. As predicted, monitoring turned out to be positively related to internal locus of control and to problem-focused coping, but a relationship with ‘wishful thinking/escape’ was also established. Blunting turned out to be related to the latter only. No relationship, however, was found between monitoring and blunting, reliably assessed on the basis of subjects' written reports of their reactions in real life threatening situations, and MBSS scores. This unexpected result led us to conduct a second study, directed at situational characteristics. Subjects were 55 volunteers from the general population. It was shown that the four threatening situations, figuring in the MBSS, differ on several important characteristics and also in the extent to which monitoring and blunting are used. Monitoring turned out to be positively related to perceived degree of threat and to unpredictability. Taken together, the results suggest an interactional approach in the assessment of coping styles.

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Parents of children who are hospitalized in inpatient psychiatric units must cope with significant challenges. One of these challenges relates to the way in which they cope with illness-related information. The current study examined the relationship between two such coping styles – monitoring and blunting – and family burden among parents of children in a psychiatric inpatient unit. Moreover, the possible moderating roles played by hope and self-stigma in these associations were also examined.
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A main positive effect of hope and a main negative effect of self-stigma were uncovered. An interaction between self-stigma and monitoring was also revealed, suggesting that for parents with high self-stigma, compared to those with low self-stigma, more monitoring was related to more burden.
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However, not all caregivers seek out health-related information and support. The extent to which one seeks information is dependent on many factors, including access to information sources, immediacy of information need, and personal characteristics of the information-seeker, such as self-efficacy to use information [20,21]. Caregivers suffer from a lack of practical guidance, including poor information provision, inconsistent access to technical equipment and inadequate support from palliative care professionals [22].
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However, the constructs underlying the scale are complex. The MBSS may be limited in its ability to capture the context in which monitor-blunter coping strategies are applied in real life and the extent to which the strategies are used.35 The internal consistency of the monitoring scale, but not necessarily the blunting scale,35 has been acceptable.14
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531 callers to a cancer information hotline who did not meet the 5 A Day guideline.
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Hierarchical regression modeling.
Messages matched to MBCS were more effective than mismatched messages, particularly for the monitor message, in increasing intake at 2 months but not at 4 months.
These minimal interventions influenced fruit and vegetable intake. MBCS may be a promising target for developing tailored messages aimed at increasing intake, although additional research is needed to verify the robustness of these findings.
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Styles of information seeking under threat: Personal and situational aspects of monitoring and blunting

Abstract

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Locus of control, coping behaviors, and performance in a stress setting: A longitudinal study

Journal of Applied Psychology

Enkele psychometrische aspecten van de MBSS

Révész berichten

Repression-sensitization as a dimension of personality

A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales

Educational & Psychological Measurement

Cognitive style, stress perception, and coping

Personal control and stress and coping processes: A theoretical analysis

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

An analysis of coping in a middle-age community sample

Journal of Health and Social Behavior

If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Cognitive processes as mediators of stress and coping

The concept of coping modes: Relating cognitive person variables to actual coping behavior

Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy

Die Erfassung von Angstbewältigung in physisch bedrohlichen Situationen

Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie