Thought Suppression Induces Intrusions

The aversiveness of intrusiveness: Evidence from involuntary musical imagery

OBJECTIVE

Intrusive thoughts are characterized by a sense of intrusiveness of foreign entry into cognition. While not always consisting of negative content, intrusive thoughts are almost solely investigated in that context. Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI) offers a promising alternative, as it is a type of involuntary cognition that can be used to evaluate intrusiveness without negative content.

METHODS

In Study 1, 200 participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess several aspects of intrusiveness: meta-awareness, control, repetitiveness, frequency, and subjective experience of INMI. In Study 2, 203 participants completed self-report questionnaires to explore the clinical characteristics (depression, stress, anxiety, and rumination) which might mediate the connection between INMI frequency and INMI negative experience.

RESULTS

Study 1 revealed, through exploratory factor analysis, that intrusiveness shares variance with the negative experience of INMI but not with INMI frequency. In Study 2, ruminative thinking was found to mediate the relationship between frequent INMI and the negative experience of INMI.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that INMI might be used to investigate intrusiveness in the lab without the potential confound of negative emotions. In addition, the results suggest that neither the content nor the frequency of intrusive thoughts can solely explain why these thoughts are aversive to some but not others. Ruminative style might be the missing link to explain how and why these intrusive thoughts become aversive and obsessive. In other words, we suggest that the cause for intrusiveness lies not in the thought or repetitiveness, but in the thinker.

Effects of adverse life events on mental health in single older adults in Japan

BACKGROUND

This study tested a hypothesised model of the effects of adverse life events on the mental health of middle-aged and older adults living alone, as mediated by thought suppression and help-seeking behaviours, considering gender differences.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 1202 (622 men; 580 women) individuals from 247445 residents aged 50-79 in District A of Tokyo. The questionnaire items covered parameters on adverse life events, help-seeking behaviour, thought suppression, and mental health status.

RESULTS

Multiple group structural equation-modelling analysis revealed that the seriousness of adverse life events, help-seeking behaviours, and mental health scores were higher in women than in men. No significant gender differences were observed in thought suppression. The findings support all three proposed hypotheses: severe adverse life events will: (a) give rise to help-seeking behaviours, which will have a positive effect on mental health; (b) intensify thought suppression, which will harm mental health; and (c) inhibit help-seeking behaviour, especially in single middle-aged and older adult men.

CONCLUSION

There is a need to develop interventional programs based on the theory of replacement thinking to encourage help-seeking behaviours in middle-aged and older adults.

The body asks and the mind judges: the episode of food craving, its triggers and nutritional treatment

Food desires are defined as motivations that drive the search for and consumption of food. However, when domains of intensity and urgency are activated, these desires can become intense (i.e. food craving), being then characterized by episodes or cognitive events loaded with affectivity, in which food is associated with obtaining pleasure or relief, which is the only attentional focus. Specificity and urgency mark the differentiation between food desires and cravings. The process of elaboration with vivid images, the retention in working memory, the emergence of a negative affect state (awareness of the lack), and a committed attentional focus to seek food are characterized as stages of an episode of food craving. Individuals with eating disorders have the lowest levels of food craving when it comes to anorexia nervosa and the subsequent increase to bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Some environmental and cultural triggers and internal factors of cognition and emotions play a crucial role in the emergence of food craving episodes. The external factors include positive/negative events, food environment, advertisements, cultural beliefs about food, specific locations, and food itself. The internal factors comprise dietary restriction, food reward, impulsivity/inflexibility, emotions, thoughts and feelings about food, hunger/satiety/appetite, and anxious/depressive symptoms. Treatment involves the association of flexibility, awareness, and questioning strategies about dietary practices based on three principles: unconditional permission to eat, eating more for physical than emotional reasons, and tuning in with the body’s signs of hunger and satiety (intuitive eating).

Exploring Emotion Regulation and Perceived Control as Antecedents of Anxiety and Its Consequences During Covid-19 Full Remote Learning

Maintaining the emotional well-being of learners during a pandemic is important. This study explored the effects of two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) and perceived control on full remote learners' anxiety during Covid-19, and their relationship to perceived learning. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze 239 questionnaires completed by Chinese graduate students taking a course remotely from home for 13 weeks. This study showed that reappraisal was positively related to perceived control, whereas suppression was negatively related to perceived control. Reappraisers perceived more learning, whereas suppressors experienced more anxiety. Anxiety was significantly and negatively related to perceived learning. Mediation analyses showed the existence of different patterns of mediation in the pathways from the two types of emotion regulation to perceived learning. These findings are discussed in relation to relevant studies conducted during non-pandemic periods and Covid-19, and based on the results we highlight the need for interventions aimed at developing adaptive emotion regulation strategies and reducing anxiety in emergency remote learning.

Intrinsic Rivalry. Can White Bears Help Us With the Other Side of Consciousness?

Studies of consciousness have traditionally been based mainly upon the perceptual domains of consciousness. However, there is another side of consciousness, represented by various types of intrinsic conscious experiences. Even though intrinsic experiences can represent up to 50% of our conscious experiences, they are still largely neglected in conscious studies. We assume there are two reasons for this. First, the field of intrinsic conscious experiences is methodologically far more problematic than any other. Second, specific paradigms for capturing the correlates of intrinsic conscious experiences are almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, we expect the intrinsic side of consciousness to soon take its place in conscious studies, but first new experimental paradigms will have to be devised, which would be of a similar design to the paradigms used in studies of perceptual consciousness. In this hypothesis and theory article, we propose such a hypothetical paradigm, presenting the exploratory data of our proof-of-concept study, discussing its use, and addressing its shortcomings and their possible remediation.

Measuring Thought-Control Failure: Sensory Mechanisms and Individual Differences

The ability to control one’s thoughts is crucial for attention, focus, ideation, and mental well-being. Although there is a long history of research into thought control, the inherent subjectivity of thoughts has made objective examination, and thus mechanistic understanding, difficult. Here, we report a novel method to objectively investigate thought-control success and failure by measuring the sensory strength of visual thoughts using binocular rivalry, a perceptual illusion. Across five experiments ( N = 67), we found that thought-control failure may occur because of the involuntary and antithetical formation of nonreportable sensory representations during attempts at thought suppression but not during thought substitution. Notably, thought control was worse in individuals with high levels of anxiety and schizotypy but more successful in mindful individuals. Overall, our study offers insight into the underlying mechanisms of thought control and suggests that individual differences play an important role in the ability to control thoughts.

The tendency for experiencing involuntary future and past mental time travel is robustly related to thought suppression: an exploratory study

Involuntary mental time travel (MTT) refers to projecting oneself into the past or into the future without prior conscious effort. The previous studies have shown high inter-individual variability in the frequency of involuntary MTT, but a few systematic studies exist. In three exploratory studies, we investigated the relation between individual differences in experiencing involuntary past and future MTT, and selected emotional and cognitive processes, with a special focus on thought suppression. Across all three studies, thought suppression emerged as a robust predictor of involuntary MTT above and beyond emotion-related variables, mind-wandering, daydreaming styles, and demographic variables. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 showed that higher thought suppression consistently predicted both more frequent involuntary past and future MTT across an American and a Danish sample, whereas rumination and emotion regulation were less consistently related to involuntary MTT. In Study 3, thought suppression reliably predicted more frequent involuntary MTT, even when controlling for mind-wandering, as well as for positive and negative daydreaming styles, which were all related to greater involuntary MTT. Overall, the individual differences assessed showed similar relationships to the tendency for having past and future involuntary MTT, with the possible exception of daydreaming styles, which appeared more strongly related to future-directed involuntary MTT.

What's the Worry with Social Anxiety? Comparing Cognitive Processes in Children with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in children is often comorbid with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We investigated whether worry, intolerance of uncertainty, beliefs about worry, negative problem orientation and cognitive avoidance, that are typically associated with GAD, are present in children with SAD. Participants included 60 children (8-12 years), matched on age and gender. Groups included children: with primary GAD and without SAD (GAD); with primary SAD and without GAD (SAD); and without an anxiety disorder (NAD). GAD and SAD groups scored significantly higher than the NAD group on worry, intolerance of uncertainty, negative beliefs about worry and negative problem orientation, however, they did not score differently from each other. Only the GAD group scored significantly higher than the NAD group on cognitive avoidance. These findings further understanding of the structure of SAD and suggest that the high comorbidity between SAD and GAD may be due to similar underlying processes within the disorders.

A worrying trend in Social Anxiety: To what degree are worry and its cognitive factors associated with youth Social Anxiety Disorder?

BACKGROUND

Comorbidity between Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is extremely common. This study investigated whether factors commonly associated with GAD, including worry, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), positive and negative beliefs about worry (PBW, NBW), negative problem orientation (NPO) and cognitive avoidance (CA) were associated with SAD severity, symptoms and overall functioning.

METHOD

Participants included 126 youth aged 8-17 years (M=11.29, SD=2.67, Males n=50) with a primary diagnosis of SAD. Participants and a parent underwent a diagnostic interview and completed questionnaires at pre- and 12-week post assessment, and 6-month follow-up. Correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted.

RESULTS

Each of the cognitive variables, with the exception of PBW, was found to correlate with SAD symptoms, SAD severity and overall functioning. NPO emerged as an important predictor of SAD severity, self-reported ratings of SAD symptoms, and poorer levels of overall functioning. IU and worry also predicted self-rated SAD symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

Measures were chosen on the basis of their sound psychometrics however some were yet to undergo rigorous testing with youth populations. The study design is cross-sectional, which restricts firm conclusions regarding causal and temporal associations between the variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study have implications for the specificity of GAD and SAD in youth. Further research is required to understand whether these cognitive variables play a maintaining role in youth SAD and the extent to which they might influence treatment.

The Relative Efficacy of Concentration and Suppression Strategies of Mental Control

Mental control research has found that attempts to suppress unwanted thoughts can backfire when cognitive demands arise or intentional control subsides. The present research examined the relative efficacy of an alternative form of mental control that involves concentrating on desirable thoughts instead of trying to suppress unwanted material. Using a novel cognitive measure that addresses some of the methodological issues associated with previous suppression research, a series of three studies indicates that a concentration strategy of mental control circumvents the problems associated with thought suppression. The findings are consistent with ironic process theory, which maintains that suppression invokes a monitoring process that is exclusively focused on goal-antithetical thoughts, whereas a concentration strategy involves a broader range of monitored thoughts that is less likely to undermine mental control.

‘When Suppression Backfires’

Based on Wegner’s Ironic Processing Theory, this study examines the effects of suppressing eating-related thoughts in a sample of 77 female students. A distinction was made between disinhibited restrainers (high dietary restraint/high disinhibition), inhibited restrainers (high dietary restraint/low disinhibition) and low restrainers. Results indicate that disinhibited restrainers used thought suppression more often and were the only group to show a rebound effect for eating-related thoughts after suppression. No effects of suppression on willingness and desire to eat emerged. Hence, thought suppression may be counterproductive at least for a subgroup of restrainers and may fuel eating-related preoccupations. More research is required to evaluate effects on eating behaviour.

Why the white bear is still there: electrophysiological evidence for ironic semantic activation during thought suppression

Much research has focused on the paradoxical effects of thought suppression, leading to the viewpoint that increases in unwanted thoughts are due to an ironic monitoring process that increases the activation of the very thoughts one is trying to rid from consciousness. However, it remains unclear from behavioral findings whether suppressed thoughts become more accessible during the act of suppression. In the current study, event-related potentials were recorded while participants suppressed or expressed thoughts of a focus word during a simple lexical decision task. Modulations in the N400 component reported here demonstrate the paradoxical effects occurring at the semantic level during suppression, as well as some evidence for the rebound effect after suppression periods. Interestingly, semantic activation was greater for focus words during suppression than expression, despite differences in the N1 window suggesting that expression elicited greater perceptual processing than suppression. Results provide electrophysiological evidence for the Ironic Process model and support recent claims of asymmetric network activation during thought suppression.

Linking cognitive avoidance and GAD symptoms: The mediating role of fear of emotion

Although cognitive avoidance has been linked to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), the mechanism that may account for this association has not been fully elucidated. The current study uses structural equation models to evaluate the relationship between cognitive avoidance and symptoms of GAD in a large unselected sample (n = 1220), and to examine whether subjective fear of emotion partially mediate this relationship. Results support partial mediation, and follow-up analyses suggest that the pattern of relations among fear of emotion, cognitive avoidance, and GAD symptoms is invariant for men and women. However, subsequent analysis revealed equivalence of meditational models where cognitive avoidance leads to GAD symptoms and vice versa. The implications of these findings for better understanding the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of GAD are discussed.

Emotional and behavioral reaction to intrusive thoughts

A self-report measure of the emotional and behavioral reactions to intrusive thoughts was developed. The article presents data that confirm the stability, reliability, and validity of the new seven-item measure. Emotional and behavioral reactions to intrusions emerged as separate factors on the Emotional and Behavioral Reactions to Intrusions Questionnaire (EBRIQ), a finding confirmed by an independent stress study. Test-retest reliability over 30 to 70 days was good. Expected relationships with other constructs were significant. Stronger negative responses to intrusions were associated with lower mindfulness scores and higher ratings of experiential avoidance, thought suppression, and intensity and frequency of craving. The EBRIQ will help explore differences in reactions to intrusive thoughts in clinical and nonclinical populations, and across different emotional and behavioral states. It will also be useful in assessing the effects of therapeutic approaches such as mindfulness.

The Importance of Behaviour in the Maintenance of Anxiety and Panic: A Cognitive Account

The theoretical and empirical basis of commonly accepted propositions concerning the role of behaviour in the practice of behavioural psychotherapy for anxiety problems is considered. A number of problems are identified, and an alternative, more explicitly cognitive hypothesis is described. According to this cognitive account, there is both a close relationship and specific interactions between “threat cognitions” and “safety seeking behaviour”. For any individual, safety seeking behaviour arises out of, and is logically linked to, the perception of serious threat. Such behaviour may be anticipatory (avoidant) or consequent (escape). Because safety seeking behaviour is perceived to be preventative, and focused on especially negative consequences (e.g. death, illness, humiliation), spontaneous disconfirmation of threat is made particularly unlikely by such safety seeking behaviours. By preventing disconfirmation of threat-related cognitions, safety seeking behaviour may be a crucial factor in the maintenance of anxiety disorders. The implications of this view for the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed.

Intrusive Thoughts and Auditory Hallucinations: A Cognitive Approach

In this paper, an account of auditory hallucinations is outlined, incorporating the phenomena of intrusive thoughts; this is done with reference to the prevailing cognitive models of auditory hallucinations. The account proposes that metacognitive beliefs inconsistent with intrusive thoughts lead to their external attribution as auditory hallucinations, and that such a misattribution is maintained by reducing cognitive dissonance. It is also suggested that the appraisal of the resulting hallucinatory experience elicits behavioural, emotional and physiological responses that may be involved in the maintenance process. The possibility of extending such an account to certain other positive symptoms is discussed, and the theoretical and clinical implications of such an account are considered, and illustrated with a case example. Finally, a number of testable predictions are made.

Suppression of Negative and Neutral Thoughts

Testing a variant of Wegner's (1989) “thought suppression” paradigm, we had subjects identify a personally-relevant negative thought that had been troubling them recently. Subjects were then randomly assigned either to a negative target thought group or to a neutral target thought (“white bear”) group, and randomly assigned either to an initial suppression condition (followed by a free expression period) or an initial free expression condition (followed by a suppression period). The results revealed that subjects in the neutral thought group experienced a decline in thoughts about white bears throughout the course of the experiment, whereas subjects asked first to suppress a personally relevant negative thought experienced nearly a three-fold increase in its frequency of occurrence when later given permission to express it. These findings suggest that negatively valent thoughts may respond differently than neutral thoughts following attempts to suppress them.

Perceived Control and Appraisal of Obsessional Intrusive Thoughts: A Replication and Extension

The present study had two purposes: 1) to examine the relationship between tendency to experience obsessional intrusive thoughts and tendency to worry; 2) to replicate and extend earlier findings (Purdon and Clark, 1993, 1994) on appraisal and thought suppression strategies in the persistence and control of obsessional intrusive thoughts. A sample of 160 college students were administered the Revised Obsessional Intrusions Inventory (ROII), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI). The ROII total score had minimal association with worry, trait thought suppression, or depressive symptoms, thereby supporting the distinctiveness of obsessional intrusive thoughts. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that cognitive appraisal, especially worries that the intrusion might come true in real life, accounted for a significant amount of variance in thought frequency and controllability. Thought suppression strategies accounted for substantially less variance in both frequency and control of intrusive thoughts. The results are discussed in terms of their support for Rachman's (1993) and Salkovskis' (1985, 1989) theories regarding the role of personal responsibility in the persistence of obsession-like intrusive thoughts.

The Relationship Between Obsessional Problems and Intrusive Thoughts

According to the cognitive theory, obsessional problems occur when the occurrence and/or content of intrusive thoughts are interpreted as a sign of increased personal responsibility for some harmful outcome to oneself or others. The link between normal intrusive thoughts and obsessional thoughts is outlined. Current definitions of “neutralizing” and “responsibility” within the cognitive framework are examined and clarified. Responsibility-driven attempts to control cognitive activity explain obsessional and compulsive phenomena better than generalized deficit models. Recent descriptions of “meta-cognitive” factors in obsessions echo the existing cognitive model and have similar implications. An extension of the cognitive-behavioural model suggests a link between thought suppression and the perception of responsibility and to concerns about failure to act (omissions).

Suppression of Dentist-Related Thoughts

The present study explored factors associated with the successful suppression of dentist-related thoughts. Fifty-eight subjects first completed questionnaires on dental anxiety, trait anxiety, cognitive self-efficacy, and negative cognitions related to dental treatment. After imagining a scene in which they were undergoing dental treatment, subjects were asked to identify the negative thoughts they had just experienced. Next, subjects were instructed to suppress these thoughts during a one minute period. After this suppression period, subjects rated the extent to which they had succeeded in suppressing their dentist-related thoughts (i.e., thought control) and the extent to which they had spent on thinking about these thoughts (i.e., intrusiveness). The results showed that dental anxiety was negatively correlated with successful thought suppression, while trait anxiety was negatively associated with intrusions during the suppression period. It is suggested that anxiety undermines adequate cognitive control.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy For Auditory Hallucinations Without Concurrent Medication: A Single Case

A 38 year old patient with auditory hallucinations was treated with a brief cognitive-behavioural intervention without concurrent medication. This intervention was based upon the theory of Bentall (1990a, b) and the methods of Haddock, Bentall and Slade (1993). The patient's ratings for frequency of hallucinations and distress caused were significantly reduced at end of treatment, and her belief in the reality of these voices was correspondingly diminished. These gains were maintained at one and three month follow-up.

Incentive to Suppress a Neutral Thought

A suppression-mention task was used to evaluate the influence of increasing the incentive to suppress on subsequent enhancement and/or rebound effects. The experimental group suppressed neutral thoughts with a financial incentive for performance. A bogus pipeline was used to control for honesty. Two control groups, one with the bogus pipeline and one without, were asked to suppress the thought without the possibility of financial reward contingent on performance. Results showed that the group with a possible financial reward, although more successful in suppressing the thought, were still unable to suppress the thought. No enhancement or rebound effects were observed.

Rebound Effects of Thought Suppression: Instruction-Dependent?

Previous studies have shown that when normal subjects are instructed to think of a white bear (“forced” expression instructions), they do so more frequently when they have previously suppressed the thought of a white bear than when they have not suppressed this thought. It has been proposed that this rebound effect of thought suppression provides a laboratory model for the development of real-life obsessions. The present studies were undertaken in order to explore further the tenability of this model. Rebound effects were evaluated when more “liberal” expression instructions (“you might think of a white bear, but you don't have to”) were used. In Experiment 1, no evidence was obtained to suggest that suppression results in a heightened frequency and/or accelerated rate of white bear thoughts during a subsequent expression period (with “liberal” instructions). Interestingly, initial suppression lead to an immediate and stable increase of thought related electrodermal fluctuations. In Experiment 2, it was found that successful suppressors (few target thoughts during suppression) report fewer white bear thoughts during expression (with “liberal” instructions) than unsuccessful suppressors (many target thoughts during suppression). Assuming that the ecological validity of “liberal” expression instructions is greater than that of “forced” instructions, the present findings cast doubt on the claim that the rebound effect mimics the etiology of obsessions. The findings also suggest that it may be the immediate counter-productive effects of suppression that are relevant to theories concerned with obsessions.

From intrusive thoughts to obsessions: The role of perceptions of responsibility, salience, and thought suppression

Salkovskis [1985. Obsessional-compulsive problems: A cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571-583.] hypothesized that intrusive thoughts are more likely to occur if the thought is salient for the individual, triggers feelings of responsibility and if the individual attempts to suppress the thought. The relationship between these three factors (responsibility, salience, thought suppression) and frequency of intrusive thoughts as well as anxiety were examined in the present study. One hundred female college students were led to believe that a snake had escaped from the cage in which it was housed. Half of the participants were led to believe that they were responsible for the snake's escape and half were not (Responsibility/No Responsibility). Half of the participants in each Responsibility condition were instructed to suppress thoughts of snakes during a stream of consciousness exercise and half were not (Thought Suppression vs. No Thought Suppression). All participants then completed a second stream of consciousness without suppression instructions. Salience groups were determined by a median split on a measure of snake fearfulness. Participants for whom the snake was a salient stimulus and who believed that they were responsible for the snake's escape had the highest frequency of snake thoughts during the second stream of consciousness task and also experienced the highest levels of state anxiety. Findings are discussed with respect to Salkovskis' model.

Chronic thought suppression and posttraumatic symptoms: data from the Madrid March 11, 2004 terrorist attack

Although a considerable number of people either witnessed directly or in the mass media the traumatic scenes of the terrorist attack that took place on March 11th, 2004 in Madrid, only a fraction of Madrid citizens developed posttraumatic symptoms. In this study, posttraumatic stress-related symptoms, degree of exposure, coping strategies related to the attack, and chronic attempts to avoid intrusive thoughts (i.e., thought suppression) were assessed in a general population Madrid sample (N=503) 2-3 weeks after the attacks. Our results showed that participants with higher scores in chronic thought suppression exhibited higher levels of PTSD symptoms. Higher scores in chronic thought suppression also correlated positively with the use of avoidant coping strategies after the attacks. We discuss the possible common roots of avoidance of intrusive thoughts and avoidant coping strategies and the implications of this relationship for the emergence of stress-related symptoms as well as for public health policies.

Preliminary data on the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and borderline personality disorder: the role of experiential avoidance

Although research on the temperamental vulnerabilities associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) has focused primarily on the role of impulsive-aggression, affective instability, and emotional vulnerability, growing evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (AS) also may increase vulnerability for BPD. This study provides preliminary data on the relationship between AS and BPD, examining whether AS distinguishes outpatients with BPD from outpatients without a personality disorder (non-PD), and whether the relationship between AS and BPD is mediated by experiential avoidance (i.e., attempts to avoid unwanted internal experiences, such as anxiety). Findings indicate that BPD outpatients reported higher levels of AS than non-PD outpatients and AS reliably distinguished between these two groups. Furthermore, the relationship between AS and BPD was mediated by experiential avoidance. Finally, results indicate that AS (and experiential avoidance as a mediator) accounted for a significant amount of additional variance in BPD status above and beyond both negative affect and two well-established temperamental vulnerabilities for BPD (affect intensity/reactivity and impulsivity). Findings suggest the need to further explore the role of AS in the pathogenesis of BPD.

Thought suppression in obese and non-obese restrained eaters: piece of cake or forbidden fruit?

OBJECTIVE

This article examines thought suppression tendencies in restrained eaters. Furthermore, the dynamics between failing thought suppression and thought control strategies are explored.

METHODS

One hundred and five overweight and normal-weight boys and girls (12-18 years) participated in a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. A distinction was made between disinhibited restrained eaters (high restraint/high disinhibition), inhibited restrained eaters (high restraint/low disinhibition) and unrestrained eaters (low restraint) in both weight-groups. The Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) was used to select the different groups of (un)restrained eaters. The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) was employed to measure thought suppression and intrusions. The Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) was used to measure thought control strategies (distraction, punishment, reappraisal, worry, social control).

RESULTS

The disinhibited restrainers obtained meaningfully higher scores on WBSI-total, WBSI-thought suppression and WBSI-intrusion than the inhibited restrainers and unrestrained eaters in both weight groups. Those who scored high on WBSI-total, obtained significantly higher scores on the TCQ subscales distraction, worry and punishment, than those who scored low on WBSI-total.

DISCUSSION

The findings suggest that disinhibited restrainers, irrespective of their weight status, report a high tendency to suppress thoughts. Given Wegner's theoretical account, this may be associated with preoccupations and self-control difficulties.

A comparison of the effects of thought suppression, distraction and concentration

This study compared the effects of suppression, focused-distraction, and concentration on controlling unwanted distressing thoughts, and examined how anxiety levels were associated with the use of each thought-control technique. In the study, college students were told to suppress thoughts about a distressing story, to suppress the same thoughts by focusing on an alternative distraction task, to simply concentrate on that alternative task, or to think about anything without restrictions for 6minutes. This initial period was followed by a "free-thinking" period to assess the delayed effect of thought-control techniques. The results indicated that focused-distraction and concentration led to fewer intrusions of target thoughts than suppression, and concentration in turn resulted in fewer target intrusions than focused-distraction during the initial period. Participants in the focused-distraction and concentration condition also tended to report lower anxiety during the initial period than those who were told to suppress thoughts.

Role of thought-related beliefs and coping strategies in the escalation of intrusive thoughts: An analog to obsessive–compulsive disorder

Cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) assume that obsessions have their origin in normal intrusive thoughts. These models propose that certain beliefs, such as thought-action fusion (TAF) beliefs, combined with the use of ineffective coping strategies, such as thought suppression, lead to the development of OCD. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between these variables in a non-clinical sample in addition to exploring the effects of an alternative, acceptance-based coping strategy. This study explored the relationship between TAF beliefs, thought suppression, and OC-consistent symptoms via mediational analyses. Results showed that thought suppression mediated the relationship between TAF beliefs and OC-consistent symptoms. This study also experimentally examined the effects of various coping strategies (suppression, acceptance, or monitor-only) on the frequency of a distressing intrusion and appraisal ratings (e.g., anxiety, guilt, responsibility) after a TAF induction. Spontaneous suppression in the monitor-only group made comparisons of the experimental data difficult. However, analyses provided preliminary evidence suggesting that thought suppression is related to more intrusions, higher levels of anxiety, and negative appraisals, whereas an acceptance-based approach may be a useful alternative. Additional findings, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research are discussed.