The in the article, “Paradoxical Effects of Thought Suppression” researchers explored the hypothesis that thought suppression is difficult for people to do and that suppressed thoughts can return to consciousness with minimal prompting, perhaps becoming obsessive preoccupations (Wegner, 1987.) To explore this, they conducted two experiments where they asked subjects to verbalize their stream of consciousness for 5 minute periods, asked subject groups to alternatively express or suppress thoughts of a “white bear”, and record occurrences of “white bear” thoughts during each period via verbal mentions or bell rings. Researchers found that thought suppression attempts resulted in a rebound effect that was especially pronounced when subjects were
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However suppression was never complete as subjects continued to report instances of thought more than once per minute (mean of 6.78) during the suppression period. Most significantly, the experiment showed that “white bear” thought occurrence rates were higher during the subsequent expression period for the initial suppression group compared to other conditions, showing a rebound effect of thought suppression. Bell ring reports per minute also increased over time (from an average of about 4.4 to 5.1 per minute) during the expression period for the initial suppression group showing accelerating preoccupation with the thought, whereas reports per minute decreased over time in every other measurement period for the initial expression group. (Wegner, 1987)
In the second experiment, the independent variables were the focused distraction condition, initial suppression condition, and initial expression condition. The dependent variable was the duration and number of “white bear” thought occurrences that were reported and determined via analysis of bell rings with white bear mentions, bell rings alone, mentions alone, and duration in seconds of white bear discussion on tape …show more content…
Thought suppression during every experimental condition was never fully complete. Moreover, as demonstrated by these results, the rebound effect of thought suppression causes a tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression attempts (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Nock, 2014, p.189) which can lead to preoccupation or rumination on the thought. The theory of ironic processes of mental control, which stipulates that mental processes can produce ironic errors because monitoring for errors can itself produce them (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Nock, 2014, p.189) may play a significant role in the rebound effect of thought suppression. This study suggests that during the search for distractions from the unwanted thought, it’s possible to form contextual negatively cued associations that can later act as subtle triggers for the unwanted thought. That said, having a singularly focused positive cue to redirect attention to during suppression attempts can help to diminish or eliminate the rebound effect. Actively expressing (and thinking about) the target thought appears to also reduce the occurrence of the target thought overtime, which may explain why talk therapy is so beneficial. Instead of trying to suppress an unwanted thought outright, this study suggests we
However suppression was never complete as subjects continued to report instances of thought more than once per minute (mean of 6.78) during the suppression period. Most significantly, the experiment showed that “white bear” thought occurrence rates were higher during the subsequent expression period for the initial suppression group compared to other conditions, showing a rebound effect of thought suppression. Bell ring reports per minute also increased over time (from an average of about 4.4 to 5.1 per minute) during the expression period for the initial suppression group showing accelerating preoccupation with the thought, whereas reports per minute decreased over time in every other measurement period for the initial expression group. (Wegner, 1987)
In the second experiment, the independent variables were the focused distraction condition, initial suppression condition, and initial expression condition. The dependent variable was the duration and number of “white bear” thought occurrences that were reported and determined via analysis of bell rings with white bear mentions, bell rings alone, mentions alone, and duration in seconds of white bear discussion on tape …show more content…
Thought suppression during every experimental condition was never fully complete. Moreover, as demonstrated by these results, the rebound effect of thought suppression causes a tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression attempts (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Nock, 2014, p.189) which can lead to preoccupation or rumination on the thought. The theory of ironic processes of mental control, which stipulates that mental processes can produce ironic errors because monitoring for errors can itself produce them (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Nock, 2014, p.189) may play a significant role in the rebound effect of thought suppression. This study suggests that during the search for distractions from the unwanted thought, it’s possible to form contextual negatively cued associations that can later act as subtle triggers for the unwanted thought. That said, having a singularly focused positive cue to redirect attention to during suppression attempts can help to diminish or eliminate the rebound effect. Actively expressing (and thinking about) the target thought appears to also reduce the occurrence of the target thought overtime, which may explain why talk therapy is so beneficial. Instead of trying to suppress an unwanted thought outright, this study suggests we