Marianne Pellechia (M.S., Purdue
University, 1990)
is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at
Purdue University. Her research interests center on science
communication and journalism.
Chris Irvine was a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at
Purdue University. She now works in the private sector.
An earlier version of this paper was presented
at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association,
New York City, November, 1998.
Over the last 15 years, a number of studies in
the mass communication literature have tested hypotheses about viewers'
emotional reactions to frightening movies or TV programs. An assumption
seems to be that self-reports of negative emotion are adequate for
testing hypotheses about emotional responses. This study challenges that
assumption in arguing for an alternative position that self-report
responses provide only a partial picture of emotional response. By
including data on physiological arousal, a more complete and sometimes
different view of emotional responses emerges. Participants were either
repressors or nonrepressors. Consistent with research on the repressive
coping style, this study revealed that repressors who reported low
levels of negative affect in response to a frightening film exhibited
significantly higher physiological arousal than did nonrepressors. These
results suggest that for repressors, low levels of self-reported
negative affect may not provide a complete picture of their emotional
experience. Implications and future directions for research are
discussed.