Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

617

Date

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Concentration

General Psychology

Committee Chair

J. Gayle Beck

Committee Member

Meghan McDevitt-Murphy

Committee Member

Richard Dale

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of anxiety and social desirability on information processing for a stressful audio depicting either self-relevant or non-self-relevant stimuli. Sixty-two undergraduates were randomly assigned to listen to either stimulus condition describing a serious car accident. Participants completed an attention latency task during the audio clip. An explicit memory and implicit memory task were compelted after the task. Results indicate that indivduals reporting low levels of social desirability responded slower and had lower accuracy for the attention task in the non-self-relevant condition relative to the self-relevant condition. No significant interactions were found for explicit and implicit memory. Low levels of anxiety were associated with lower levels of positive affect for the self-relevant condition relative to the non-self-relevant condition. In light of these findings, results are discussed with respect to examining the underlying mechanisms of repression, and its effects on reduced information processing of traumatic events.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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