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Dysfunctional beliefs are the central element in cognitive-behavioral conceptualizations of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of this study was to further elucidate the etiological role of preexisting dysfunctional beliefs in the occurrence of unwanted intrusive thoughts and neutralizing behaviors after a critical event by examining their predictive value and specificity in a prospective study with undergraduate students. The dysfunctional belief domains importance/control of thoughts (ICT), responsibility/threat (RT), and perfectionism/certainty (PC) were assessed at baseline 8 weeks prior to the critical event "exam situation" in N = 169 students. Exam-related unwanted intrusive thoughts and neutralizing behaviors, anxiety, and depression were assessed during the week immediately before the exam. Complete data for both baseline and follow-up were available for 79 participants (46%). After controlling for baseline obsessive–compulsive symptoms, anxiety, and depression, ICT but not RT or PC prospectively predicted exam-related intrusive thoughts and neutralizing behaviors, ICT also prospectively predicted depressive symptoms but not anxiety, and RT and PC both prospectively predicted anxiety but not depressive symptoms. Findings are partially consistent with cognitive models of OCD. They support the idea that ICT is a cognitive vulnerability factor for unwanted intrusive thoughts and neutralizing behaviors during a stressful event. Its predictive power was small and not specific to unwanted intrusive thoughts and neutralizing behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) propose that erroneous beliefs about the importance and need to control thoughts lead individuals with OCD to overuse maladaptive thought control strategies such as worry and self-punishment. These strategies are thought to backfire, leading to obsessional symptoms. Whereas previous studies have examined predictors of the use of thought control strategies, none have investigated these strategies as mediators in the prediction of OCD symptom severity. An additional gap in the literature is the lack of attention to OCD symptom dimensions. The present study, therefore, extended existing work by examining thought control strategies as mediators of the relationship between obsessive beliefs and OCD symptom dimensions in a treatment-seeking sample of 102 adults with OCD. In line with our hypotheses, the use of punishment (but not worry) as a thought control tactic mediated the relationship between dysfunctional beliefs about the importance/control of thoughts and unacceptable obsessions. These findings are discussed in terms of the conceptualization and treatment of OCD. Future research should investigate the extent to which these various thought control strategies may be helpful versus harmful using idiographic measures of thought control and employing experimental designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies used to control unwanted thoughts during the evening have been shown to be significantly associated with insomnia, a common problem associated with numerous negative consequences. This study examined whether nighttime thought control strategies would predict insomnia severity among 460 college students (mean age = 18.8, 61 % female, and 72 % Caucasian) after accounting for well-established risk factors for the disorder such as anxiety, depression, sleep hygiene, and nighttime pain. The Insomnia Severity Index was used to measure insomnia severity and the Thought Control Questionnaire Insomnia-Revised was used to measure nighttime thought management strategies. Results from a hierarchical multiple linear regression showed that the strategy of cognitive distraction (attempts to withdraw from unwanted thoughts or think about more pleasant content) was negatively associated with insomnia severity and the strategy of aggressive suppression (the use of critical and punishing self thought) was positively associated with insomnia severity after accounting for other risk factors. These findings add to the growing literature highlighting arousing pre-sleep cognitions as a correlate of insomnia. These findings also add to emerging literature showing the ability to cognitively distract from the arousing thought as a correlate of good sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ, Wells and Davies in Behav Res Therapy, 32, pp 871-878, ) measures individual differences in thought suppression strategies. This study describes the development and psychometric properties of an adolescent version of the questionnaire. Pilot studies were conducted to make some of the items more accessible to young people while still retaining the meaning of the original items. The adolescent version of the questionnaire and measures of emotional disorder were then administered to 589 school pupils aged 13-17 years. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded mixed results with only partial support for a five factor solution. Subsequently exploratory factor analysis did suggest a five factor structure that was the same as the original TCQ with the only difference being two fewer items. The five factors were distraction, social control, worry, punishment and reappraisal. The TCQ-A showed good internal consistency and evidence of stability over time. Scores on the worry and punishment subscales were positively correlated with measures of emotional symptoms. These data provided initial support for the psychometric properties of the TCQ-A and extend findings suggesting worry and punishment strategies are associated with psychological vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impulsive behaviors and intrusive thoughts are prominent in psychopathology. Two studies were conducted to explore their relationships. In Study 1, 250 participants completed the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale and the Thought Control Ability Questionnaire (TCAQ). In Study 2 involving a sample of 97 female students, the relations between impulsivity and different types of thought control difficulties were examined. Both negative urgency and lack of perseverance were significantly related to the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts as measured by the TCAQ, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, the obsessing subscale of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, and an intrusion subscale of the White Bear Suppression Inventory. Regression analyses revealed that negative urgency and lack of perseverance independently contributed to worries and thought control difficulties and that negative urgency was the strongest predictor of all types of intrusions. On the basis of these findings, the authors discuss cognitive processes and content that may be related the different facets of impulsivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicate that suppression is a counterproductive mechanism of thought control. In the current paper we examined whether individuals can successfully suppress an intrusive thought confronting a reminder of it, a suppression technique employed on memory research. Thus, 76 undergraduates performed a thought suppression task with three monitoring intervals and were randomly allocated to a suppression-only, suppression confronting a reminder stimulus or monitor-only condition. Data analysis yielded an absence of paradoxical effects (rebound) on target thought frequency. However, the examination of the annoyance associated with the intrusions indicated that those individuals instructed to suppress without confronting the reminder maintained the same level of discomfort reported at baseline, whereas the other participants reduced the discomfort level, suggesting that the confrontation with a reminder is a recommendable strategy for emotion regulation. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the clinical and cognitive research on thought control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has linked obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to maladaptive strategies of thought control, which in turn may elicit a paradoxical increase in the unwanted thought. One explanation for OCD patients’ use of maladaptive thought control strategies is that they tend to overestimate the importance of their thoughts, or perceive a greater need to control them. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between obsessive beliefs and use of maladaptive thought control strategies in a sample of 77 OCD patients and 35 anxious control patients. Patients completed the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) and the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ), as well as measures of trait anxiety and depression. Across the entire sample and for OCD patients only, when controlling for depression and trait anxiety, the TCQ Punishment scale correlated significantly with the OBQ-44 Importance/Control of Thoughts scale. Regression analyses indicated that beliefs about the Importance/Control of Thoughts accounted for the relationship between OCD and the use of Punishment as a thought control strategy. In addition to providing additional construct validation for the OBQ-44, the present data add to a growing body of research suggesting that OCD patients, believing their intrusive thoughts to be particularly important and perceiving a need to control them, overuse maladaptive thought control strategies; these strategies tend to “backfire” and trigger additional intrusive thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive anxiety and worry that is difficult to control; but methods of thought control among persons with GAD have not been previously investigated. Forty-two patients with GAD and 55 non-anxious controls (NACs) completed the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ; A. Wells&M. I. Davies, 1994). Patients with GAD reported significantly greater use of worry and punishment strategies, and less use of distraction and social control strategies, than NACs. Further, worry and punishment strategies were positively correlated with depressive symptoms and excessive worry, while distraction and social control strategies were negatively correlated with these measures of psychopathology. Higher life satisfaction was associated with greater use of distraction and social control strategies, and lesser use of worry and punishment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]