Citation

Magee JC, Teachman BA. Behav. Res. Ther. 2007; 45(12): 2884-2898.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400400, 102 Gilmer Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA. jcm7m@virginia.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.brat.2007.07.014

PMID

17825786

PMCID

PMC2121148

Abstract

The current study examined the nature and consequences of attributions about unsuccessful thought suppression. Undergraduate students with either high (n=67) or low (n=59) levels of obsessive-compulsive symptoms rated attributions to explain their unsuccessful thought suppression attempts. We expected that self-blaming attributions and attributions ascribing importance to unwanted thoughts would predict more distress and greater recurrence of thoughts during time spent monitoring or suppressing unwanted thoughts. Further, we expected that these attributions would mediate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptom levels and the negative thought suppression outcomes (distress and thought recurrence). Structural equation models largely confirmed the hypotheses, suggesting that attributions may be an important factor in explaining the consequences of thought suppression. Implications are discussed for cognitive theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder and thought suppression.

Language: en