Suppression of emotional and neutral material.
Previous studies have indicated that suppression of a thought results in an immediate increase of the frequency of this thought and/or in a rebound effect, i.e. in a heightened frequency of this thought later on. The present study (n = 53) examined the relationship between suppression and emotionality of the to-be-suppressed material. More specifically, it was investigated whether suppression of an emotional story results in stronger immediate enhancement or thought rebounds than suppression of a neutral story. There was a clear initial enhancement effect in the group suppressing a neutral story: subjects who tried to suppress experienced more target thoughts than subjects who did not try to suppress. In the neutral-story conditions, no rebound effect occurred. In the groups exposed to an emotional story, there was neither evidence of initial enhancement nor of a rebound. As most obsessions are related to emotional themes, the present findings cast doubt on the claim that the rebound phenomenon represents a valid laboratory model for clinical obsessions.
Muris
P
P
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Merckelbach
H
H
van den Hout
M
M
de Jong
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D013850:Thinking