Dr. Nic Hooper

Don’t think of a white bear!

What is thought suppression?According to Daniel Wegner

‘attempting to banish ones unwanted thoughts’In everyday terms

It is the attempted removal of unwanted thoughts from the mind.

A natural reaction Rachman and Da Silva (1978)

80% of people will attempt to suppress an unwanted thought

Why is thought suppression important?Smoking cessation (Toll, Sobell, Sobell & Wagner, 2000) Worrying (Mathews & Milroy, 1993) Stress (Roehrich & Goldman, 1995) Sleep impairment (Ree et al, 2004 ) ASD (Harvey & Bryant, 1998), OCD (Freeston & Ladouceur, 1997), GAD (Beckner et al 1988 ), PTSD (Foa, Steketee & Rothbaum, 1989; Ehlers & Steil,

1995), Specific Phobias (Thorpe & Salkovskis, 1997) Depression (Wegner, 1994)

Research outlineWhy is it that we cannot suppress our

thoughts?

What are the possible effects of thought suppression on behaviour?

What are the alternatives to thought suppression in the management of unwanted

thoughts?

Why is thought suppression futile?

Taught

Untaught

Procedure1. Screening measures2. Equivalence training and testing3. Five minute suppression phase4. Induction of cognitive load5. Avoidance program

Hooper, Saunders and McHugh (2010)

BEAR

BOCEEMGEDEER

Opposition Relations and TSOpposition relations seem particularly interesting

in this context

When a person is trying to suppress a thought then one strategy may be to think of something that is very different or opposite along some dimension E.g., if I am trying not to think of something sad or

depressing then I may think of something happy or uplifting

However, doing so may eventually fail for the same reason that any other distracter fails – because the association between the stimuli is strengthened

Relational Network

Target(‘BEAR’)

Derived same

Taught same

DerivedOpposite Derived

Opposite

Control

Procedure1. Screening measures2. Same opposite training and testing3. Five minute suppression phase4. Induction of cognitive load5. Avoidance program

Stewart, Hooper and McHugh (under review)

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

B1: Target A1: Same[Trained]

C1: Same[Derived]

C2: Opposite[Derived]

Control

Word Category

Mea

n F

req

uen

cy o

f R

emo

val

But so what…..According to our results it is likely that thought

suppression is difficult due to environmental reminders

However, from an ACT perspective, we are not really concerned with whether we can suppress out thoughts per se

Instead we are interested in valued living

It is therefore more important to us to determine if thought suppression narrows our behavioral repertoire causing us to lose contact with our values

Thought suppression and behavioural avoidance

Procedure

Screening measures

Equivalence training and testing

Five minute suppression phase

Induction of cognitive load – (6-digit number)

Preference program

Hooper, Stewart & McHugh (under review)Bear

Hooper, Stewart & McHugh (under review)Trained/Derived items

What can we do instead?!According to Relational Frame Theory (RFT)

control based strategies like suppression only serve to enhance the relational network associated with an unwanted thought.

In order to avoid the unwanted thoughts, one will also have to avoid all thoughts in the relational network as a transformation of suppression functions will occur. (Hooper, Saunders & McHugh, 2010)

Recent AlternativesAcceptance based strategies disrupt the

transformation of stimulus functions I.e. they alter the aversive functions of the stimuli in a

relational networkSpecifically, acceptance based strategies

encourage the client to experience the unwanted thoughts without attempts at altering their form or frequencyDefusion

Defusion encourages people to distance themselves from their thoughts

Mindfulness Mindfulness encourages present moment living, enabling

people to come into contact with unwanted thoughts in a non judgemental manner

Intervention based researchDefusion intervention study – learned

helplessnessStep one – screening questionnairesStep two – instruction; thought suppression,

defusion, no instructionStep three - learned helplessness has been

used in previous research to induce a depressed like state by exposing participants to an insolvable task.

Step four – the dependent measure; maze task

(Hooper & McHugh, in press)

Intervention based researchDefusion intervention study – food cravings

Step one – Participants told they are to refrain from eating chocolate for 6 days

Step two – Instruction; thought suppression, defusion, no instruction

Step three –Participants had to record the amount of times they ate chocolate across a five day period, they also recorded the amount of cravings they experienced.

Step four – Participants returned to the lab to complete a taste test, where rebound was measured.

Hooper, Sandoz, Ashton, Clarke and McHugh (2012)

Defusion TS Control

Cravings 13.25 9.29 11.71

Chocolate eaten 5.88 7.29 9.64

Minstrels eaten 3.31 14.59 10.93

Intervention based researchMindfulness based study – Spider fear

Step 1 – screening questionnairesStep 2 – thought suppression/mindfulness

inductionsStep 3 – Behavioural Approach Test (BAT)Step 4 – anxiety measure

Behavioural Approach Test (BAT)1. Move 1 metre to the table2. Move 1 more metre to the table3. Approach the table4. Touch the jar for more than 10 seconds5. Lift up the jar6. Open the jar7. Touch the spider with a pencil for more than

10 seconds8. Remove the spider from the jar9. Touch it with a finger for more than 10

seconds10.Put the spider on their hand

Hooper, Davies, Davies and McHugh (2011) BAT data

Results – STAI data

Intervention based researchMindfulness based study – Stereotype threat

(female math stereotype)Step 1 – Maths test 1Step 2 – Mindfulness versus no mindfulness

exerciseStep 3 – Induction of stereotype threatStep 4 – Maths test 2

Weger, Hooper, Meier and Hopthrow (2012)

Future DirectionsLanguage and Behavioural Avoidance

Inclusion of appetitive stimulus – up the valenceManipulation of values

Intervention Based ResearchThe development of different behavioural

measures of the effectiveness of ACT component based techniques Public speaking Sports performance Studying behaviour Pain

Thank you