RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REPRESSION-SENSITIZATION AND PHYSICAL ILLNESS.

HYPOTHESIZED THAT BOTH SENSITIZERS AND REPRESSERS EXCEED THOSE INDIVIDUALS FALLING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DISTRIBUTION WITH RESPECT TO FREQUENCY AND SEVERITY OF ILLNESSES. EXP. I UTILIZED 2 INDEPENDENT SAMPLES OF UNDERGRADUATES (N = 173 AND 319) WHO WERE GIVEN THE REPRESSION-SENSITIZATION (R-S) SCALE AND A HEALTH SURVEY. THERE WAS NO SUPPORT FOR THE CURVILINEARITY HYPOTHESIS, BUT ON 12 HEALTH ITEMS IN BOTH SAMPLES, SENSITIZERS INDICATED GREATER FREQUENCY AND/OR SEVERITY OF ILLNESS THAN DID REPRESSERS. IN THE EXP. II A SUBSAMPLE OF 85 EXTREME SCORERS ON THE R-S SCALE FROM A POOL OF 319 SS WERE COMPARED WITH RESPECT TO THE NUMBER OF VISITS MADE TO THE UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER DURING 1 ACADEMIC YR. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE INDICATED THAT MALE SENSITIZERS DO IN FACT SEEK MEDICAL HELP SIGNIFICANTLY MORE FREQUENTLY THAN MALE REPRESSERS; FOR FEMALES, HEALTH CENTER VISITS WERE UNRELATED TO R-S SCORES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)