Jackson, Todd, and Ebnet, Stephanie (2006) Appraisal and coping in romantic relationship narratives: effects of shyness, gender, and connoted affect of relationship events. Individual Differences Research, 4 (1). pp. 2-15.

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Abstract

This research assessed the effects of shyness, gender, and affective tone of events on appraisal and coping in relation to three, inter-related episodes (ambiguous, negative, and positive) of a romantic relationship narrative. A sample of 83 females and 40 male college students representing shy (n=59) and non-shy (n=64) groups was drawn from a larger initial sample (N=167), read each vignette, and gave their emotional appraisals and likely coping responses to each one. Consistent with past research, the shy group appraised ambiguous and negative story vignettes to be more threatening and endorsed more emotion focused coping strategies relative to the non-shy group which endorsed social support and active coping more strongly in these scenarios. In contrast, however, for the relatively positive relationship vignette, there were no differences in threat appraisal and differences in reported coping were attenuated. For gender, women were more likely than men to make challenge appraisals for the initial, ambiguous passage and threat and loss appraisals for subsequent negative and positive vignettes, suggesting relationship "history" may have influenced their later appraisals and coping preferences more strongly than those of men. Women also endorsed support-seeking more than men in coping with each vignette, albeit other gender differences in coping seemed to depend on the scenario.

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