Static thinking as cognitive coping with performance difficulties: The role of motivation and ‘‘arousal’’ GUIDO H. E. GENDOLLA University of Geneva, Switzerland (Received 21 February 2006; accepted 13 April 2006) Abstract Static thinking (the orientation to competence-related personal characteristics) is initiated when behavioral coping is not possible under the condition of high motivation (Wicklund, 1986). The present research investigated the role of task engagement, quantified as cardiovascular reactivity, in this process. Participants performed a memory task that was easy, moderate, or difficult (actually insolvable) under high importance of success. Thereafter participants wrote essays about competent performers and indicated via self-report whether they were engaged in static thinking. Task engagement and static thinking were dissociated; static thinking increased linearly with task difficulty whereas task engagement described a curvilinear pattern. The findings are not explicable in terms of a general arousal  cognition relationship and suggest that the importance of success rather than actual task engagement initiates static thinking to cope with performance difficulties. Keywords: Arousal  cognition, cardiovascular reactivity, static thinking, task engagement Stress can be defined as ‘‘a response to a discrepancy between the normal, steady state of the person and some changed conditions in the environment’’ (Geen, 1996: 272). Although researchers have disagreed on whether stress describes any state of demand to the organism’s physiological homeostasis (Cannon, 1939; Selye, 1956) or if it is a person  environment setting in which resources fall short of demand and thus threatens an individual’s well-being (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), there is agreement that stress is a state that demands a coping response from the person (see Lazarus, 1993). The present study investigated the conditions for (only) two specific types of coping reactions (active, behavioral coping or cognitive coping via so called static thinking) not ignoring that a multitude of other different coping reactions have been suggested in the psychological literature. The reason for the present focus is that the preconditions for these two reactions have been highlighted by a theory that has received little attention in stress and coping research. According to the theoretical analysis of Wicklund (1986), static thinking is the preoccupation with competence-related personality characteristics. It is elicited when people face demands they cannot adequately cope with on the behavioral level, because their behavioral resources do not correspond to the extent of demand. While numerous Correspondence: Guido H.E. Gendolla, University of Geneva, FPSE, Department of Psychology, 40 Bd. du Pont d’Arve, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. E-mail: guido.gendolla@pse.unige.ch ISSN 1061-5806 print/ISSN 1477-2205 online # 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10615800600841265 Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, September 2006; 19(3): 293  307 Downloaded by [Université de Genève] at 04:34 03 June 2013