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The current study is to investigate repetitive negative thoughts (RNT) and thought control strategies (TCS) as potential risk or protective factors for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) with individuals exhibiting heightened Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) traits.

This study examined the effect of continuous thought suppression on the subsequent automatic retrieval of memory. In four experiments, participants processed a target phrase and their subsequent me...

Models of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have largely focused on the role of cognitive (i.e. covert) processes in the maintenance of GAD symptoms, including cognitive avoidance (e.g., thought suppression). Researchers have begun to investigate more systematically the role of overt avoidance behaviors in GAD symptoms and processes. However, the contribution of both overt and covert avoidance strategies in GAD symptoms and emotional processes has not been examined yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate if both overt and covert avoidance strategies are related to (Objective 1) and make a unique contribution in the explanation of the variance of (Objective 2) GAD symptoms, chronic worry and emotional processes (i.e. fear of emotion). Individuals high in chronic worry and GAD symptoms (N = 113) recruited from the community completed measures of the study variables. Greater use of overt and covert avoidance were both related to greater GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. However, covert avoidance was the only unique correlate of GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. The results suggest that covert avoidance makes a greater contribution to GAD symptoms and fear of emotion, than does overt avoidance. Future studies are needed to understand how overt avoidance behaviors fit into theoretical models of chronic worry and GAD.

Previous literature has demonstrated that individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sometimes lack awareness of their trauma-related memories/thoughts, which is also known as meta-awareness failure. This study aims to understand the mechanism underlying the relationship between trauma and meta-awareness failure by examining the role of alexithymia, thought suppression, and rumination in this proposed relationship.

Few studies have examined how trait emotion dysregulation relates to momentary affective experiences and the emotion regulation (ER) strategies people use in daily life. In the current study, 112 college students completed a trait measure of emotion dysregulation and completed experience sampling and end-of-day surveys over a two- to three-week period, asking about their emotional experiences and ER strategy use. Participants completed a total of 3798 experience sampling (in-the-moment) and 995 nightly diary surveys. We examined the top 40% of each participant's reported instances of negative affect (to capture times when emotions more likely need regulation). Results indicated that a higher level of trait emotion dysregulation was associated with the following in-the-moment responses: (a) higher level of negative affect; (b) greater desire to change emotions; (c) more attempts to regulate emotion; (d) higher relative endorsements of avoidant (e.g. thought suppression) versus engagement (e.g. acceptance) ER strategy use; and (e) lower perceived effectiveness of ER. Further, individuals with a higher (vs. lower) level of trait emotion dysregulation were less able to identify emotions over the course of the day. Findings demonstrate how trait emotion dysregulation may predict emotional experiences and ER in daily life.

The core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) include problematic interpersonal relationships, behavioral and affective dysregulation, identity problems, and cognitive dysregulation. Cognitive dysregulation, such as catastrophizing, rumination, and thought suppression, contributes to emotion dysregulation in BPD. Previous research suggested that thought suppression fully mediated the relationship between negative affect intensity/reactivity and BPD symptoms. We predicted that catastrophizing similarly will serve as a mediator between negative affect intensity/reactivity and BPD symptoms. Two samples completed the study. First, students (N = 191) self-selected to participate in an online study through the university psychology research recruitment system. Additionally, a second sample using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; N = 172) was utilized. Catastrophizing partially mediated the relationship between negative affect intensity/reactivity and BPD symptoms. Across these samples, results suggest that catastrophizing may have a significant role in understanding BPD symptoms, which is similar with rumination. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Evaluating other people's sincerity is a ubiquitous and important part of social interactions. Fourteen experiments (total N = 7,565; 10 preregistered; 11 in the main article, three in the online supplemental materials; with U.S. American and British members of the public, and French students) show that response speed is an important cue on which people base their sincerity inferences. Specifically, people systematically judged slower (vs. faster) responses as less sincere for a range of scenarios from trivial daily conversations to high stakes situations such as police interrogations. Our findings suggest that this is because slower responses are perceived to be the result of the responder suppressing automatic, truthful thoughts, and fabricating a novel answer. People also seem to have a rich lay theory of response speed, which takes into account a variety of situational factors. For instance, the effect of response delay on perceived sincerity is smaller if the response is socially undesirable, or if it can be attributed to mental effort. Finally, we showed that explicit instructions to ignore response speed can reduce the effect of response speed on judgments on sincerity. Our findings not only help ascertain the role of response speed in interpersonal inference making processes, but also carry important practical implication. In particular, the present study highlights the potential effects that may be observed in judicial settings, because the response speed of innocent suspects may mislead people to judge them as insincere and hence guilty. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Background Family caregivers often report high levels of distress, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, and reduced quality of life. There is a need for a greater understanding of the factors influencing, explaining, and maintaining psychological distress in family caregivers. Aim The aim of this study was to examine whether avoidance strategies such as thought suppression (WBSI), psychological inflexibility (AAQ-II), and, and caregiver experiential avoidance (EACQ) predict psychological distress (BDI-II, GAD-7) and quality of life (WHOQOL) in family caregivers aged 60 and over. We hypothesized that these avoidance strategies would explain elevated levels of psychological symptoms and lower quality of life. Method Altogether, 149 family caregivers completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety, quality of life, thought suppression, psychological inflexibility and caregiver experiential avoidance. We conducted correlation and regression analyses to assess the associations and the predictive ability of these constructs. Results Together, psychological inflexibility and thought suppression accounted for between 40 and 46% of the variance in the depression and anxiety outcomes and 15% of the variance in the physical domain of quality of life. Unwanted thoughts, the subcomponent of thought suppression, was strongly associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, and with physical and psychological quality of life. Conclusion Thought suppression and psychological inflexibility played a significant role in explaining family caregivers’ symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition, psychological inflexibility was significantly related to quality of life. This suggests the need for acceptance-based strategies to handle thought suppression and psychological inflexibility.

본 연구의 목적은 사고억제와 강박사고와의 관계에서 사고억제를 침입적 사고, 사고억제시도, 성공적 억제로 나누고, 각 하위요인이 강박사고에 미치는 영향에서 역기능적 상위인지와 자기자비의 매개효과를 검증하였다. 대구 · 경북지역 성인 471명을 대상으로 강박사고, 사고억제, 역기능적 상위인지, 자기자비척도를 사용하여 자료를 분석하였다. 그 결과 첫째, 침입적 사고, 사고억제시도는 강박사고에 정적 영향을 미쳤으나, 성공적 억제는 강박사고에 유의한 영향을 미치지 않았다. 둘째, 역기능적 상위인지는 침입적 사고와 강박사고와의 관계를 매개하는 것으로 나타났으나, 자기자비는 매개효과가 나타나지 않았다. 셋째, 역기능적 상위인지는 사고억제시도와 강박사고와의 관계에서 완전 매개효과를 보인 반면, 자기자비는 사고억제 시도와 강박사고와의 관계에서 매개효과를 보이지 않았다. 넷째, 역기능적 상위인지는 성공적 억제와 강박사고와의 관계에서 매개효과를 보이지 않았으나, 자기자비는 성공적 억제와 강박사고와의 관계에서 매개효과를 보였다. 본 연구의 결과는 사고억제의 하위요인들이 강박사고에 영향을 미치는 과정에서 역기능적 상위인지와 자기자비의 매개역할을 검증하였다는 점에 의의가 있다.

Remigiusz Szczepanowski,1,2 Ewelina Cichoń,2,3 Tomasz Niemiec,2,3 Beata E Andrzejewska,2,3 Monika Wójta-Kempa1 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Applied Studies, Research Unit for Clinical Psychology, University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw, Poland; 3Faculty of Psychology, WSB University in Torun, Torun, PolandCorrespondence: Remigiusz SzczepanowskiDepartment of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw ul. Kazimierza Bartla 5, Wroclaw, 51-618, PolandTel + 48 71 784 18 15Fax +48 71 347 93 59Email remigiusz.szczepanowski@umed.wroc.plIntroduction: Although psychological studies have suggested both the desired and paradoxical effects of unwanted thought suppression, we still know little about this mechanism. It has been proposed that individual differences in using specific strategies to suppress intrusions explain why contradictory effects of suppression are observed. The main aims of the study were to investigate the factor structure of the Polish version of Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) and verify whether this structure corresponds to the original version of the TCQ measurement.Methods: Using the TCQ, which is a 30-item self-report measure, this research investigated individual thought control strategies to suppress intrusive thoughts in the general population. We used parallel analysis and theoretical interpretability to investigate the most appropriate factor structure of the inventory. To examine the validity of the Polish version of TCQ the correlational analysis of TCQ factors with other psychometric scales: Beck Depression Inventory, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and The Metacognitions Questionnaire. The internal consistency of the TCQ subscales was also assessed by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for each factor.Results: The resulting five-factor solution explained 51.86% of the total variance. The Polish version of TCQ consisted of five subscales yielding satisfactory reliability values: 1) Punishment (α = 0.725); 2) Distraction (α = 0.688); 3) Social Control (α = 0.780); 4) Worry (α = 0.788; 5) Re-appraisal (α = 0.70).Conclusion: The five-factor solution was convergent with the dimensions that appeared in the original TCQ version and were observed in the most TCQ adaptations in various countries. Our findings support the psychological construct of thought-control strategies measured by TCQ and prove the satisfactory reliability of this self-report measure within a Polish population.Keywords: thought control strategies, suppression, intrusions

Controlling our thoughts is central to mental well-being, and its failure is at the crux of a number of mental disorders. Paradoxically, behavioral evidence shows that thought suppression often fails. Despite the broad importance of understanding the mechanisms of thought control, little is known about the fate of neural representations of suppressed thoughts. Using fMRI, we investigated the brain areas involved in controlling visual thoughts and tracked suppressed thought representations using multivoxel pattern analysis. Participants were asked to either visualize a vegetable/fruit or suppress any visual thoughts about those objects. Surprisingly, the content (object identity) of successfully suppressed thoughts was still decodable in visual areas with algorithms trained on imagery. This suggests that visual representations of suppressed thoughts are still present despite reports that they are not. Thought generation was associated with the left hemisphere, and thought suppression was associated with right hemisphere engagement. Furthermore, general linear model analyses showed that subjective success in thought suppression was correlated with engagement of executive areas, whereas thought-suppression failure was associated with engagement of visual and memory-related areas. These results suggest that the content of suppressed thoughts exists hidden from awareness, seemingly without an individual's knowledge, providing a compelling reason why thought suppression is so ineffective. These data inform models of unconscious thought production and could be used to develop new treatment approaches to disorders involving maladaptive thoughts.

The present study shows the relationship between mindfulness, thought suppression and mental fatigue overall and in practitioners of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism in adult participants. The sample in...

Numerous studies have shown that restrained eating is not an effective weight loss strategy. Restrained eaters often suppress their desires and thoughts about tasty food, which makes it more difficult to control themselves in subsequent eating behavior. The ego depletion impairs conflict monitoring abilities. Therefore, this study explored the effects of food thoughts suppression on restrained eaters' conflict monitoring. Therefore, this study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods to explore changes in the activity of brain regions involved in conflict monitoring when restrained eaters choose between high- and low-calorie foods after either suppressing or not suppressing thoughts about food. The results showed that, compared to the control condition, after suppression of such thoughts, restrained eaters chose more high-calorie foods and displayed decreased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex-an important region in charge of conflict monitoring. At the same time, the functional coupling of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the precuneus increased. Our findings suggest that restrained eaters' suppression of thoughts about tasty food could lead to a decline in their ability to monitor conflicts between current behaviors and goals, which in turn leads to unhealthy eating behavior.

Objectives: To determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Food Thought Suppression Inventory (FTSI) in overweight university students in Iran. Methods: A sample of 233 overweight students were recruited from five universities in Tehran. Participants were asked to complete the Persian versions of FTSI, Binge Eating Scale, Thought Control Questionnaire, Rumination Response Scale, and Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics of participants were also collected. Results: Validity of the Persian version of the FTSI was verified by the fitting indices of the proposed single-factor model of the main makers (I§2= 112.75, df = 90, p = 0.052, I§2/df = 1.25, goodness-of-fit index = 0.93, comparative fit index = 0.96, non-normed fitness index = 0.96, root mean score of error approximation = 0.032, and standardised root mean residual = 0.052). Internal consistency of the instrument was high, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88. Conclusion: The Persian version of the FTSI is a valid and reliable tool for screening patients in obesity clinics and for evaluating treatment outcomes. © 2020 Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Press. All rights reserved.

2-s2.0-85092013878 High comorbidity of anxiety and depression poses challenges to research and treatment in clinical settings. The current study was set out to investigate whether respondents can be separated into discrete depressive and anxious subgroups or reveal a continuous distribution throughout the population based on the symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition, we also explored the role of rumination, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional attitudes, and thought suppression as transdiagnostic factors. Psychometric instruments including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale-Revised (DAS-R), Ruminative Response Scale – Short Form (RRS-SF), and White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) were completed by 310 undergraduates. Item responses to the BDI and BAI were subjected to latent class analysis (LCA). The LCA showed that three homogenous subgroups exist: normal, subclinical, and psychopathology latent classes. Findings supported the dimensional model rather than the categorical distinction between anxiety and depression. Strong covariances between anxious and depressive symptoms across latent subgroups were observed. Having controlled for age and gender, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional thinking, rumination, and thought suppression were all found significant transdiagnostic factors. Anxiety and depression, as frequently co-occurring clinical conditions, can be best understood in a continuum rather than taxonomic classifications. Individuals more prone to use maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation strategies seem to be at greater risk of psychopathology. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

This study investigated predictors of involuntary and voluntary memories of stressful virtual reality scenarios. Thirty-two veterans of the two Persian Gulf Wars completed verbal memory tests and diagnostic assessments. They were randomly assigned to a Recounting (16) or a Suppression (16) condition. After immersion in the VR scenarios, the Recounting group described the scenarios and the Suppression group suppressed thoughts of the scenarios. One week later, participants completed surprise voluntary memory tests and another thought suppression task. The best predictors of voluntary memory were verbal memory ability, dissociation, and to a lesser extent, physiological arousal before and after scenarios. Dissociation and physiological stress responses selectively affected memory for neutral elements. Higher distress during scenarios impaired voluntary memory but increased the frequency of involuntary memories. Physiological stress responses promoted more frequent involuntary memories immediately after the scenarios. More frequent initial involuntary memories, tonic physiological arousal, and stronger emotional responses to dangerous events predicted difficulty inhibiting involuntary memories at follow-up. The effects of thought suppression were transient and weaker than those of other variables. The findings suggest that posttraumatic amnesia and involuntary memories of adverse events are more related to memory ability and emotional and physiological stress responses than to post-exposure suppression.

Individuals with psychosis report employing more maladaptive and less adaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies compared to nonclinical controls (NCs). However, it is unknown whether this is predictive of affect experienced in daily life and whether ER strategies are used less frequently and effectively by individuals with psychosis in daily life. Individuals with psychosis and current delusions (PDs; n = 71) and NCs (n = 42) completed questionnaires of habitual ER and experience sampling over 6 consecutive days, in which they reported 10 times a day on the presence of negative and positive affect and deployment of ER strategies (reappraisal, acceptance, awareness, suppression, rumination, distraction, and social sharing). Effectiveness of strategy use was operationalized by examining successive differences in positive and negative affect. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted. Questionnaires of habitual ER were largely predictive of affect in daily life. There was indication of a more frequent use of putatively maladaptive strategies but either no differences in individual adaptive strategies or even a more frequent use (reappraisal) in PDs compared to NCs. Several ER strategies (e.g., reappraisal, rumination) proved effective in reducing negative affect by the next prompt, independent of group, but suppression was effective in only PDs and acceptance had unfavorable effects in both groups. Thus, PDs demonstrated an increased use of ER strategies in daily life, of which the majority helped them to reduce negative affect. This indicates that their increased levels of negative affect are not explicable by difficulties in deploying explicit ER strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Having secrets on the mind is associated with lower well-being, and a common view of secrets is that people work to suppress and avoid them—but might people actually want to think about their secrets? Four studies examining more than 11,000 real-world secrets found that the answer depends on the importance of the secret: People generally seek to engage with thoughts of significant secrets and seek to suppress thoughts of trivial secrets. Inconsistent with an ironic process account, adopting the strategy to suppress thoughts of a secret was not related to a tendency to think about the secret. Instead, adopting the strategy to engage with thoughts of a secret was related the tendency to think about the secret. Moreover, the temporal focus of one’s thoughts moderated the relationship between mind-wandering to the secret and well-being, with a focus on the past exacerbating a harmful link. These results suggest that people do not universally seek to suppress their secrets; they also seek to engage with them, although not always effectively.

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to investigate whether an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)-based web-intervention (Group 1, CareACT), or a standardized rehabilitation in a rehabilitation center (Group 2) was effective in enhancing the psychological well-being of family caregivers aged 60 and over compared to support provided by voluntary caregiver associations (Group 3). Methods: Altogether, 149 family caregivers participated in this quasi-experimental study. Primary outcome measure was depression. Secondary outcomes included anxiety, sense of coherence, quality of life, psychological flexibility, experiential avoidance, and thought suppression. The questionnaires were administered at baseline, and four, and 10 months post-measurement. We investigated differences in the changes between the groups using Mplus modeling techniques. Results: Regarding the main outcome of depression, the results suggest that the CareACT intervention was superior to standardized rehabilitation and to the support given by caregiver associations at four months, both showing a medium-sized difference between the groups. However, the change from four to 10 months post-intervention was not significantly different between these groups (d = 0.32–0.36). Thought suppression showed a significantly different change between the three groups from baseline to four months and to 10 months post-measurement (p = .038). Conclusions: Web-based ACT may have beneficial effects on depressive symptoms and thought suppression in older caregivers. Clinical implications: Web-based ACT could be a feasible alternative to institutional rehabilitation and support provided by voluntary caregiver associations. Web-based ACT responds flexibly to the needs of caregivers and provides them an opportunity for learning new skills to promote well-being. peerReviewed

Affect intolerance (AI), one’s perceived sensitivity to, and intolerance of, unpleasant emotional states, is a risk and maintenance factor of affective disorders. To cope with AI, individuals may rely on maladaptive emotion regulation techniques that provide quick, but short-lived, relief from distress. Two cognitively based maladaptive emotion regulation strategies—repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and thought suppression (TS)—reflect contrasting attempts to cope with unwanted emotions. The present study sought to simultaneously examine the relationships between AI, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders using structural equation modeling. Data from a community sample (N = 590) was used to assess the relationship between an empirically derived latent AI factor and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This latent AI factor demonstrated indirect effects on depression symptoms via RNT (β = 0.212, p = 0.039) and on OCD symptoms via RNT (β = 0.197, p = 0.021) and TS (β = 0.171, p = 0.001). There were no indirect effects of the latent factor on anxiety symptoms. These results suggest that elevated AI is associated with greater psychological symptoms via the use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and that this relationship differs by symptom type.

Thought-suppression research showed, when asked to suppress a given thought (e.g., a white bear), people ironically report thinking more of the suppressed thought. Testing motor performance given avoidance goals (e.g., avoid putting the ball short of the target in golf) represents an interest to transfer thought-suppression findings to motor tasks. However, instead of revealing an ironic process, motor studies showed mixed results, suggesting a coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes. The present study investigates the coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes induced by avoidance goals in motor tasks. Adopting a dual-process framework, an attention imbalance model (AIM) was proposed to conceptualize such a coexistence. Four golf-putting experiments were conducted to test the AIM by manipulating the degree of attentional imbalance. Results indicated the factor of attentional imbalance moderates the likelihood between ironic and overcompensating processes in golf putting, and such a moderating effect exists in both between- and within-individual variation of task performance but demands task-specific considerations. In addition, performance feedback confounded the putting performance by reducing the likelihood of overcompensating process. The implications of the AIM are discussed in an extended context of motor performance under avoidance goals and thought suppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background Emotion regulation flexibility is a person's tendency to shift their use of emotion regulation strategies in response to contextual demands. A lack of flexibility is thought to underlie affective disorders, yet conceptualizations of “flexibility” vary widely, and few studies have empirically assessed flexibility. In this study, we outline methods for measuring emotion regulation flexibility and then examine evidence for inflexibility in people with a common affective disorder: social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods Participants were community adults diagnosed with SAD and a psychologically healthy control group who completed a 14-day experience-sampling study. Participants recorded their most anxiety-provoking event each day, how they evaluated contextual demands (i.e., perceived controllability, emotional intensity) of these events, and their use of seven emotion regulation strategies to manage anxiety. Hypotheses and analyses were preregistered with the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/s7kqj/ ). Results Participants with SAD demonstrated some evidence of inflexibility. They used three disengagement strategies (rumination, thought suppression, expressive suppression) more often than controls and did so independently of contextual demands (specifically, perceived controllability). Nonetheless, participants with SAD largely demonstrated similar regulatory patterns as controls, most notably in their use of engagement strategies (acceptance, cognitive, reappraisal, problem-solving). Limitations We measured two of many possible contextual demands, did not compare to a mixed clinical group or other affective disorders (e.g., depression), and did not assess temporal sequences of strategy use. Conclusions People with SAD demonstrate some inflexibility in their use of disengagement regulation strategies.

Unwanted intrusive thoughts (UITs) are negative ruminations that occur commonly and show similar characteristics between clinical and nonclinical forms. Despite their prevalence and impact, the control processes of UITs remain unclear. This study aimed to capture the effects of three thought-control strategies on UITs through an interventional design with individualized choking thoughts among Elite athletes, while measuring behavioral and brain responses. Ninety athletes recollected recent "choking" experiences prior to being randomized into one of three groups that used either acceptance, suppression, or passive monitoring (control condition). The activation of choking thoughts during and after the thought control intervention was gauged through three measurement approaches, including conscious presence in mind, priming, as well as the amplitudes of the P3b and N400 event-related potentials (ERPs). To strengthen the causal inferences concerning thought control strategies, athletes' working memory capacity was measured and controlled at baseline. Results indicated that, relative to passive monitoring, suppression led to enhanced priming and reduced conscious presence of UITs, whereas acceptance resulted in an opposite pattern of reduced priming and increased conscious presence of UITs. Moreover, UIT-related stimuli elicited less negative-going N400 amplitudes and more positive-going P3b amplitudes than UIT-irrelevant stimuli, although no effect of thought control strategies was identified on the ERPs. These findings contribute to the theoretical and mechanistic understanding of UIT control processes by revealing subtle effects of two fundamental UIT control strategies: suppression and acceptance. Such insights also bear meaningful applied implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

In this study, we examined the conditional indirect and direct relations of pain-related cognitions to depression. Subjective helplessness was included as presumably mediating the relations of catastrophizing and thought suppression to depression due to motivational deficits. In addition, moderating effects of dispositional action versus state orientation were analyzed, whereby state orientation indicates volitional deficits in coping with distress. The study was based on self-report data from 536 patients with chronic non-specific low back pain at the beginning of inpatient rehabilitation. Moderated mediation analyses were performed. The indirect catastrophizing- and thought suppression-depression relations were (partially) mediated by subjective helplessness; and moderated by failure-related action versus state orientation. Moreover, action versus state orientation moderated the direct relation of thought suppression to depression. Results suggest that catastrophizing, thought suppression, and subjective helplessness do not lead to depression unless associated with self-regulatory inability (i.e., state orientation). In contrast, action-oriented patients more effectively self-regulate pain-related emotions, disengage from rumination, and distract from pain and thus better avoid the debilitating effects of negative pain-related cognitions on depression. Future research and treatment may more strongly focus on the role of motivational and volitional deficits underlying learned helplessness and depression in chronic pain.

A relationship between rumination and suicidal ideation is well-evidenced. A role for thought suppression has also been suggested but under-explored. The present study assessed the relative contribution of rumination and a range of thought control strategies in the understanding of suicidal ideation, within the theoretical framework of the self-regulatory executive function (S-REF) model (Wells & Matthews, 2015). Twenty-four participants who had experienced suicidal ideation in the last two months completed trait-level measures of metacognitive beliefs and momentary sampling measures of thought control strategy use, rumination and suicidal ideation over six days. Maladaptive thought control strategy use (worry and punishment), alongside rumination, predicted suicidal ideation. Adaptive strategies (distraction, social control and reappraisal) emerged as negative predictors. Metacognitive beliefs about the need to control thoughts predicted the use of punishment- but not worry-based thought control strategies. Thought control strategy use is as important in the development of suicidal ideation as rumination. The S-REF model represents a promising new approach to understanding these processes in the development of suicidal ideation.

The metacognitive model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) implicates metacognitive beliefs, meta-memory beliefs and metacognitive control strategies in perpetuating and maintaining symptoms of PTSD. Despite this expanding area of research, the evidence for the metacognitive model of PTSD has not been reviewed. A systematic review according to the PRISMA statement was conducted. Searches across MEDLINE, PubMed and PsycNET, as well as reference lists of the included studies (2004 to March 2020), yielded 221 records. Two independent reviewers screened articles, which were included where the impact of the constructs of interest on PTSD symptoms was investigated within the framework of the metacognitive model for PTSD. Eighteen articles were included in the review. Eleven studies were determined to have good methodological robustness. Metacognitive therapy for PTSD demonstrated reductions in symptoms from pretreatment to post-treatment, which were maintained at follow-up. Predictors of greater PTSD symptom severity included metacognitive beliefs, meta-memory beliefs, and worry, punishment, thought suppression, experiential avoidance, and rumination. Overall, support was found for the validity of the metacognitive model of PTSD.

Desire thinking is an emerging construct which has been shown to play a role in addictive behaviors. The present study sought to validate a translated Persian version of the Desire Thinking Questionnaire (DTQ) in three groups of individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD; n = 300), nicotine dependence (n = 300), and problematic social media use (n = 300). All three groups completed the translated Persian version of the DTQ, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-15 (BIS-15), the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Measures of alcohol use, nicotine dependence and problematic social media use were also collected. The results confirmed a two-factor structure of the Persian version of the DTQ with good reliability and validity in all three groups. Furthermore, both the verbal perseveration and imaginal prefiguration components of the Persian version of the DTQ were found to predict addictive behaviors beyond demographic and clinical characteristics, negative affect, impulsiveness, and thought suppression. The study confirms the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the DTQ and the role of desire thinking as an independent predictor of AUD, nicotine dependence, and the problematic use of social media.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a principle-based behavioral intervention that addresses human suffering using mindfulness and acceptance techniques along with behavioral commitments linked to personal values. While ACT has been applied to a wide variety of problems, it is well suited to the treatment of trauma based on its processes specifically designed to reduce experiential avoidance, and it has only just begun to be investigated for its effectiveness with this population. Furthermore, current drop-out and refusal rates for exposure-based therapies, the main empirically supported intervention for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), necessitate the development of alternatives. The current pilot studies evaluated a 12-session group ACT intervention with 10 veterans diagnosed with PTSD, and a 12-session individual ACT intervention with 9 veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Significant reductions in PTSD symptoms from pre to post or follow-up were found for both the group intervention (n = 10, g = 0.69) and the individual intervention (n = 9; g = 1.24). Decreases in thought suppression as well as increases in aspects of mindfulness and psychological flexibility were also found, but results were mixed and differed by the individual versus group intervention.