Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T19:36:03.656Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Christine Purdon  and
David A. Clark
Christine Purdon
Affiliation:
University of New Brunswick, Canada
David A. Clark
Affiliation:
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 269 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, A. T. and Steer, R. A. (1987). Manual for the Revised Beck Depression Inventory. San Antonia: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Garbin, M. C. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: twenty-five years of evolution. Clinical Psychology Review 8, 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. A. (1986). Factors influencing the retrieval and control of negative cognitions. Behaviour Research and Therapy 24, 151–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, D. A. (1988). The validity of measures of cognition: a review of the literature. Cognitive Therapy and Research 12, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. A. (1992). Depressive, anxious and intrusive thoughts in psychiatric inpatients and outpatients. Behaviour Research and Therapy 30, 93–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, D. A. and De Silva, P. (1985). The nature of depressive and anxious thoughts: distinct or uniform phenomena? Behaviour Research and Therapy 23, 383–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, D. A. and Hemsley, D. R. (1985). Individual differences in the experiences of depressive and anxious intrusive thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy 23, 279–282.Google Scholar
Clark, D. A. and Nicki, R. M. (1989). Frequency as a moderating variable in self-report measures of negative cognition. Behaviour Research and Therapy 27, 475–477.Google Scholar
Clark, D. A. and Purdon, C. (1993). New perspectives for a cognitive theory of obsessions. Australian Psychologist 28, 161–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. M., Ball, S. and Pape, D. (1991). An experimental investigation of thought suppression. Behaviour Research and Therapy 29, 253–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conway, M., Howell, A. and Giannopoulos, C. (1991). Dysphoria and thought suppression. Cognitive Therapy and Research 15, 153–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craske, M. G., Rapee, R. M., Jackel, L. and Barlow, D. H. (1989). Qualitative dimensions of worry in DSM-IIIR Generalised Anxiety Disorder subjects and non-anxious controls. Behaviour Research and Therapy 27, 397–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, S. and Dickerson, M. (1987a). Intrusive unwanted thoughts: a two-stage model of control. British Journal of Medical Psychology 60, 317–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, S. and Dickerson, M. (1987b). On the similarity of positive and negative intrusions. Behaviour Research and Therapy 25, 207–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
England, S. L. and Dickerson, M. (1988). Intrusive thoughts: unpleasantness not the major cause of uncontrollability. Behaviour Research and Therapy 26, 279–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeston, M., Ladouceur, R., Gagnon, F. and Thibodeau, N. (1991). Cognitive intrusions and depressive, anxious and obsessive compulsive symptoms: implications for obsessive-compulsive disorder.Paper presented at the Association for the Advancement of Behaviour Therapy annual meeting,New York.Google Scholar
Freeston, M., Ladouceur, R., Thibodeau, N. and Gagnon, F. (1991). Cognitive intrusions in a non-clinical population. I. Response style, subjective experience, and appraisal. Behaviour Research and Therapy 29, 585–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeston, M., Ladouceur, R., Thibodeau, N. and Gagnon, F. (1992). Cognitive intrusions in a non-clinical population. II. Associations with depressive, anxious and compulsive symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy 30, 263–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavy, E. H. and Van Den Hout, M. A. (1991). Thought suppression induces intrusions. Behavioural Psychotherapy 18, 251–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L. and Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy 28, 487–495.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niler, E. R. and Beck, S. J. (1989). The relationship among guilt, anxiety and obsessions in a normal population. Behaviour Research and Therapy 27, 213–220.Google Scholar
Parkinson, L. and Rachman, S. (1981). Part II. The nature of intrusive thoughts. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy 3, 101–110.Google Scholar
Purdon, C. and Clark, D. A. (1993). Obsessive intrusive thoughts in nonclinical subjects. Part I. Content and relation with depressive, anxious and obsessional symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy 31, 713–720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Purdon, C. and Clark, D. A. (1994). Obsessive intrusive thoughts in nonclinical subjects. Part II. Cognitive appraisal, emotional response and thought control strategies. Behaviour Research and Therapy 32, 403–410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (1981). Part I. Unwanted intrusive cognitions. Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy 3, 89–99.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (1993). Obsession, responsibility and guilt. Behaviour Research and Therapy 31, 149–154.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. and De Silva, P. (1978). Abnormal and normal obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy 16, 233–248.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. and Hodgson, R. J. (Eds) (1980). Obsessions and Compulsions. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Reynolds, M. and Salkovskis, P. M. (1991). The relationship among guilt, dysphoria, anxiety and obsessions in a normal population: an attempted replication. Behaviour Research and Therapy 30, 259–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rheaume, J., Ladouceur, R., Freeston, M. H., Letarte, H. and Dugas, M. (1993). Validation of an operational definition of responsibility in OCD: a replication.Poster presented at the annual convention of the European Congress of Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy,London, England,September.Google Scholar
Salkovskis, P. M. (1985). Obsessional-compulsive problems: a cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy 23, 571–584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. (1989). Cognitive-behavioural factors and the persistence of intrusive thoughts in obsessional problems. Behaviour Research and Therapy 27, 677–682.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. and Harrison, J. (1984). Abnormal and normal obsessions - a replication. Behaviour Research and Therapy 22, 1–4.Google Scholar
Tallis, F. and De Silva, P. (1992). Worry and obsessional symptoms: a correlational analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy 30, 103–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, S. M., Beidel, D. C. and Stanley, M. A. (1992). Are obsessional thoughts and worry different cognitive phenomena? Clinical Psychology Review 12, 257–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R. and White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53, 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Knutson, B. and McMahon, S. R. (1991). Polluting the stream of consciousness: the effect of thought suppression on the mind's environment. Cognitive Therapy and Research 15, 141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegner, D. M. and Zanakos, S. (1993). People who try not to think: the trait of thought suppression. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Wells, A. (1994). Attention and the control of worry. In Davey, G. C. L. and Tallis, F. (Eds). Worrying: Perspectives on Theory, Assessment and Treatment, Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wells, A. and Morrison, A. P. (in press). Qualitative dimensions of normal worry and normal obsessions: a comparative study.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.