Coping Style and Declining Verbal Abilities

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Abstract
Relations between coping style, verbal ability, and age in 108 medically hospitalized male veterans were studied using the mainord sentence-completion test and the logical memory subtests from the wechsler memory scale. As hypothesized by ego-analytic theory, users of a repressive coping style (avoiders) tested duller than users of a sensitizing coping style (sensitizers). A middle-scoring coping style (neutrals) showed intermediate verbal ability. Further supporting the theory, age breakdowns showed older-versus-younger dullness only for avoiders. Reversing this relationship, older neutrals tested brighter than younger neutrals, supporting a neutral-adaptation theory. Unpredicted agecohort differences were found, while observations of incidence by age suggested differential longevity by coping style Further investigation with other populations should test the suggestion that, for men who use a moderate versus an extreme coping style, intellect apparently remained intact and aging seemed generally kinder.

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