INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AMONG REPRESSORS AND SENSITIZERS IN CONCEPTUAL SKILLS

In: Social behavior and personality: an international journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, p. 144-152

Abstract

Sensitizers were hypothesized to perform significantly better than repressors on eleven concept acquisition tasks. Differences between repression-sensitization (R-S) groups (n = 48), as measured by the Byrne R-S scale, were found to be significant on several of these tasks. As
compared with repressors, sensitizers more rapidly acquired: (a) A disjunctive nonverbal concept, when a set for conjunctive concepts had to be broken (p < 0.05); and (b) Two verbal concepts (p < 0.05). Medium scoring subjects performed significantly better than repressors
in acquiring: (a) Nonverbal disjunctive concepts (p < 0.05); and (b) Verbal concepts (p < 0.05). R-S results are discussed with reference to conceptual skills and "cognitive flexibility".