Experiential avoidance in idiographic, autobiographical memories: construct validity and links to social anxiety, depressive, and anger symptoms.
Experiential avoidance, or attempts to alter or avoid undesirable thoughts and feelings, has been theorized to be relevant to the development of emotional disturbances, particularly anxiety problems. Prior work has relied on two methodologies: global self-report measures or laboratory manipulations. To better understand links between experiential avoidance and emotional disturbances, we measured experiential avoidance in the context of prominent anxious autobiographical events. Trained raters coded events for emotionality and reliance on experiential avoidance. Our interest was whether experiential avoidance could be measured as a memory characteristic and how it relates to social anxiety, depressive, and anger symptoms. As evidence of construct validity, experiential avoidance ratings were related to more intense negative emotions and coping difficulties during anxious events, memory vividness, and emotion suppression tendencies. Experiential avoidance was positively related to social anxiety and depressive symptoms and predicted an increase in social anxiety over a 3-month period; findings could not be attributed to the emotionality of memories. In contrast, no relations were found with inward or outward expressions of anger, or longitudinal change in depressive or anger symptoms. Results suggest that experiential avoidance is an important dimension of people's life narratives and particularly relevant to social anxiety problems.
Kashdan
Todd B
TB
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, United States. tkashdan@gmu.edu
Breen
William E
WE
Afram
Alex
A
Terhar
Daniel
D
D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D010554:Personality Disorders; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Psychol Bull. 2009 Mar;135(2):205-8; discussion 215-7
19254076
Psychol Bull. 1989 Jul;106(1):59-73
2667009
Am Psychol. 1990 Apr;45(4):494-503
2186678
J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004 Nov;192(11):754-61
15505519
Psychol Rev. 1994 Jan;101(1):34-52
8121959
J Consult Clin Psychol. 1996 Dec;64(6):1152-68
8991302
Behav Res Ther. 2006 Jan;44(1):1-25
16300724
Psychol Bull. 2009 Mar;135(2):183-204
19254075
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 Aug;85(2):348-62
12916575
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1994 Aug;67(2):186-205
7932061
Behav Ther. 2008 Mar;39(1):1-12
18328865
Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2006;10(2):111-32
16768650
Behav Res Ther. 2006 Sep;44(9):1301-20
16321362
Psychol Sci. 2006 Feb;17(2):120-8
16466419
Behav Res Ther. 1997 Aug;35(8):741-56
9256517
J Anxiety Disord. 2009 Mar;23(2):185-96
18676121
J Pers. 2006 Dec;74(6):1773-801
17083666
Psychol Bull. 2000 Mar;126(2):247-59
10748642
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1986 Jul;51(1):191-200
3735067
Behav Res Ther. 1998 Apr;36(4):455-70
9670605
Behav Modif. 2007 Sep;31(5):543-68
17699117
Emotion. 2007 May;7(2):400-14
17516817
Psychol Bull. 1990 Mar;107(2):156-76
2181521
J Anxiety Disord. 2008;22(2):199-210
17419002
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992 Apr;49(4):282-8
1558462