The influence of cognitive and emotional suppression on overgeneral autobiographical memory retrieval

Over-general autobiographical memory (OAM) retrieval is characterized by retrieval of categoric autobiographical memories. According to the CarFAX model, this tendency may result from avoidance which functions to protect the person against recalling details of upsetting memories. This study tested whether avoidance strategies impact on the ability to retrieve specific autobiographical memories. Healthy participants (N = 51) watched a negative video clip and were instructed to either suppress any thought (thought suppression), suppress any feeling (emotional inhibition), or think and feel naturally (controls) in response to the video. Participants then completed the Autobiographical Memory Test. Participants engaging in either thought suppression or emotional inhibition retrieved fewer categoric autobiographical memories than controls. These findings challenge the affect regulation component of the CarFAX model insofar as they suggest that regulatory strategies that aim to reduce awareness of adverse emotional memories do not necessarily lead to increased recall of categoric autobiographical memories.     

Evidence for an expectancy-based theory of avoidance behaviour

In most studies on avoidance learning, participants receive an aversive unconditioned stimulus after a warning signal is presented, unless the participant performs a particular response. Lovibond (2006) recently proposed a cognitive theory of avoidance learning, according to which avoidance behaviour is a function of both Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. In line with this theory, we found that avoidance behaviour was based on an integration of acquired knowledge about, on the one hand, the relation between stimuli and, on the other hand, the relation between behaviour and stimuli.     

Avoidance behavior associated with depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Objective: Many patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators experience depressive symptoms. In addition, avoidance behavior is a common problem among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. We examined the association between avoidance behaviors and depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Method: We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study with self-completed questionnaires between May 2010 and March 2011. We measured avoidance behaviors (avoidance of places, avoidance of objects, and avoidance of situations) and depressive symptoms (using the Beck Depression Inventory, Version II) in 119 participants. An avoidance behaviors instrument was developed for this study and we confirmed its internal consistency reliability. Results: Ninety-two (77.3%) patients were aged older than 50 years, and 86 (72.3%) were men. Fifty-one (42.9%) patients reported “avoidance of places”, 34 (28.6%) reported “avoidance of objects”, and 63 (52.9%) reported “avoidance of activity”. Avoidance behavior was associated with increased odds for the presence of depressive symptoms (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.06–1.62). Conclusions: This was the first study to identify the relationship between avoidance behavior and depressive symptoms among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators; however, there are a few methodological limitations.     

The effects of colour and valence on news evaluation

Research across different fields of psychology has reported effects of colour cues on a variety of cognitive processes. Especially, the colour red has been shown to have striking influences. In the context of media reception, however, colour effects have been widely neglected so far. This study made a first step in this direction by investigating the effects of the colour red (compared with blue and grey) on the way news articles are evaluated. Two types of news were framed by a coloured border while the valence of the news content additionally varied. Based on 369 participants who read and evaluated the news articles online, we observed effects for colour cues and news valence in the absence of an interaction effect, indicating that the colour red induced approach motivation. However, only the contrast between red and grey reached statistical significance, indicating that chromatic and achromatic colours may differ in their perceived visual saliency. Overall, these results provide an important complement to previous studies and have practical implications for media researchers and producers.     

The effects of process and outcome accountability on judgment process and performance

This article challenges the view that it is always better to hold decision makers accountable for their decision process rather than their decision outcomes. In three multiple-cue judgment studies, the authors show that process accountability, relative to outcome accountability, consistently improves judgment quality in relatively simple elemental tasks. However, this performance advantage of process accountability does not generalize to more complex configural tasks. This is because process accountability improves an analytical process based on cue abstraction, while it does not change a holistic process based on exemplar memory. Cue abstraction is only effective in elemental tasks (in which outcomes are a linear additive combination of cues) but not in configural tasks (in which outcomes depend on interactions between the cues). In addition, Studies 2 and 3 show that the extent to which process and outcome accountability affect judgment quality depends on individual differences in analytical intelligence and rational thinking style.     

Goals and responses to failure: Knowing when to hold them and when to fold them

The ability to disengage from hopeless situations is critical to goal attainment and effective self-regulation. Two experiments investigated the effects of striving to attain success (approach goals) versus striving to avoid failure (avoidance goals) on persistence. Participants completed anagrams designed so that less persistence during an initial set of unsolvable anagrams was beneficial. In Study 1, participants reported how motivated they were by approach and avoidance goals. In Study 2, participants were primed to set approach or avoidance goals. Participants with avoidance goals persisted longer during failure, with more intense and enduring emotional distress, than those with approach goals. Greater anger predicted spending more time on subsequent unsolvable anagrams and accounted for differences in persistence. The results suggest that people with approach goals are better able to identify when they should disengage during failure, and disengage more completely, than people with avoidance goals. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference, Palm Springs, CA, January, 2006.     

Self-Report Measures of Individual Differences in Regulatory Focus: A Cautionary Note

Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between two independent structures of strategic inclination, promotion versus prevention. However, the theory implies two potentially independent definitions of these inclinations, the self-guide versus the reference-point definitions. Two scales (the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire, Higgins al., 2001, and the General Regulatory Focus Measure, Lockwood, Jordan, & Kunda, 2002) have been widely used to measure dispositional regulatory focus. We suggest that these two scales align respectively with the two definitions, and find that the two scales are largely uncorrelated. Both conceptual and methodological implications are discussed.     

The effects of safety behaviors on the fear of contamination: an experimental investigation

The strategies used by anxious individuals to prevent feared outcomes, known as safety behaviors, are thought to maintain pathological anxiety by preventing the disconfirmation of inaccurate threat beliefs. However, it is possible that safety behaviors might also contribute to the development and exacerbation of anxiety symptoms. The present study tested this notion in a sample of undergraduate participants with either low (n=30) or high (n=26) levels of contamination fear. After a week-long baseline period, participants spent 1 week engaging in a clinically representative array of contamination-related safety behaviors on a daily basis, followed by a second baseline period. Subsequent to the safety behavior manipulation, participants evidenced statistically significant increases in threat overestimation, contamination fear symptoms, and emotional and avoidant responses to three contamination-related behavioral avoidance tasks (BATs). In contrast, anxiety and depressive symptoms remained stable. The magnitude of change in contamination concerns was equivalent among participants in both contamination fear groups. Our findings suggest that contamination-related safety behaviors elicit a modest and specific increase in the fear of contamination. Possible mechanisms for this effect, as well as implications for the role of safety behaviors in the psychopathology of anxiety disorders, are discussed.     

Individual and Couple Patterns of Self-views and their Implications for Working with Premarital Couple Relationship Dissatisfaction

A sample of 520 Australian heterosexual couples participating in the PREPARE premarital program completed the multidimensional PREPARE relationship assessment inventory (Olson D. H. Prepare-Enrich Counsellor’s Manual. Brisbane, Australia: Prepare-Enrich, 1996) providing measures of couple relationship satisfaction and individual levels of self-confidence, assertiveness, avoidance, and partner dominance. Multiple regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for idealistic distortion and couple relationship status, high individual male and female self-confidence and assertiveness, and low individual male and female avoidance and partner dominance, were all significant independent predictors of couple satisfaction. Couples in which both partners were high on self-confidence were significantly more satisfied than couples in which one or both of the partners were low on self-confidence. A similar result was evident for couple patterns involving mutually high assertiveness, low avoidance or low partner dominance, relative to couple patterns in which one or both partners were unassertive, highly avoidant or high in partner dominance. These aspects of self-view point to a salient evidence-based intrapersonal and interpersonal context in which to conduct couple therapy.