Cognitive restructuring and exposure with a compulsive washer: a test of reciprocal inhibition.
Reciprocal inhibition was tested with a compulsive washer using the affect elicited by rational self-statements as the response competitor to anxiety. Three conditions, CS alone, CS plus irrational self-statements, and CS plus rational self-statements, were randomly and continuously repeated over six trials. The CS was presented both imaginally and in vivo. It was hypothesized: (1) that subjective anxiety in all conditions would substantially diminish by the experiment's end; (2) that the rational self-statement condition would reduce (inhibit) subjective anxiety to a significantly greater degree than the other two conditions; and (3) that significant anxiety reduction would occur only during the rational restructuring trials. All three hypotheses were supported by the results.
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006235:Hand Disinfection; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*