Chronic Thought Suppression

ABSTRACT We conducted several tests of the idea that an inclination toward thought suppression is associated with obsessive thinking and emotional reactivity. Initially, we developed a self‐report measure of thought suppression through successive factor‐analytic procedures and found that it exhibite...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality 1994-12, Vol.62 (4), p.615-640
Main Authors: Wegner, Daniel M., Zanakos, Sophia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Behavior
Chronic thought suppression
Cognition & reasoning
Depressive Disorder - psychology
Emotions
Humans
Mental stress
Obsessive Behavior
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology
Personality
Psychoanalysis
Psychology
Repression, Psychology
Social cognition
Social research
Thinking
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Summary:ABSTRACT We conducted several tests of the idea that an inclination toward thought suppression is associated with obsessive thinking and emotional reactivity. Initially, we developed a self‐report measure of thought suppression through successive factor‐analytic procedures and found that it exhibited acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability. This measure, the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), was found to correlate with measures of obsessional thinking and depressive and anxious affect, to predict signs of clinical obsession among individuals prone toward obsessional thinking, to predict depression among individuals motivated to dislike negative thoughts, and to predict failure of electrodermal responses to habituate among people having emotional thoughts. The WBSI was inversely correlated with repression as assessed by the Repression‐Sensitization Scale, and so taps a trait that is quite unlike repression as traditionally conceived.
ISSN:0022-3506
1467-6494
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00311.x