The Relations of Cognitive Triad, Dysfunctional Attitudes, Automatic Thoughts, and Irrational Beliefs with Test Anxiety

Previous research has highlighted the important role of cognition in anxiety, including test anxiety. The present study explores the role of cognitive distortions and irrationality in test anxiety by studying the relationships among cognitive triad (core beliefs), dysfunctional attitudes (intermediate beliefs), negative automatic thoughts, irrational beliefs, debilitating test anxiety, and facilitating test anxiety in 138 undergraduates. Multiple regression analyses showed that only the cognitive triad as a whole was a significant predictor of debilitating anxiety. Specifically, negative view of self was a significant predictor of debilitating anxiety. The results supported an expansion of the current cognitive conceptualizations of test anxiety to include the importance of negative self-view. Other implications are also discussed.     

A role for ownership and authorship in the analysis of thought insertion

Philosophers are interested in the phenomenon of thought insertion because it challenges the common assumption that one can ascribe to oneself the thoughts that one can access first-personally. In the standard philosophical analysis of thought insertion, the subject owns the ‘inserted’ thought but lacks a sense of agency towards it. In this paper we want to provide an alternative analysis of the condition, according to which subjects typically lack both ownership and authorship of the ‘inserted’ thoughts. We argue that by appealing to a failure of ownership and authorship we can describe more accurately the phenomenology of thought insertion, and distinguish it from that of non-delusional beliefs that have not been deliberated about, and of other delusions of passivity. We can also start developing a more psychologically realistic account of the relation between intentionality, rationality and self knowledge in normal and abnormal cognition.

Effects of suppression and appraisals on thought frequency and distress

Cognitive theories of obsessions highlight appraisals of personal significance and thought suppression in the development and maintenance of intrusive thoughts. The current study examined the role of personal significance within the context of a thought suppression paradigm. The primary aim was to examine whether suppression would have differential effects for target thoughts appraised as personally meaningful versus relatively unimportant. A blasphemous thought served as the target thought, and highly religious and nonreligious participants were recruited. Participants completed a two-interval thought suppression task; during interval 1 they were randomly assigned to suppress or not suppress the target thought and during interval 2, all participants were given “do not suppress” instructions. Suppression resulted in sustained frequency of thoughts in contrast to the decline in thought frequency observed for non-suppression. Differential effects of suppression were found across the two groups. Moreover, suppression was associated with increased negative mood and anxiety. Results suggest that suppression of personally meaningful thoughts is a counterproductive strategy.     

Managing unwanted intrusive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Relative effectiveness of suppression, focused distraction, and acceptance

Suppression is one of various mental control techniques that people may use to manage unwanted thoughts. Evidence suggests that it is at best unsustainable and at worst counterproductive. This leads to the question: If suppression is a futile way to respond to unwanted, intrusive thoughts, what is a more effective alternative? In the current study, we evaluated the relative effectiveness of suppression and two alternative mental control techniques—focused distraction and acceptance—on the frequency of intrusions and distress associated with them. Results support the claim that suppression is a counterproductive technique for dealing with unwanted, intrusive thoughts in OCD. However, the harmfulness of suppression was reflected primarily in the magnitude of distress and not in intrusion frequency. Focused distraction and acceptance were the more effective techniques for managing clinically significant intrusive thoughts. We discuss implications for the cognitive treatment for OCD.     

Thought suppression failures in combat PTSD: A cognitive load hypothesis

The present study investigated the relation between thought suppression of emotionally neutral content [i.e., Wegner's (1994) “white bear”], incidental traumatic thought intrusion, and skin conductance responses in combat-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Participants included service members who either: a) had PTSD following an Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment; b) were free of psychiatric diagnosis following deployment (Combat Equivalent), or c) were pre-deployed and without psychiatric diagnosis (Pre-Deployed). PTSD Service Members reported the greatest intrusion of combat thoughts during the suppression task and demonstrated a post-suppression rebound effect with a neutral thought. Non-specific skin conductance responses indicated that the suppression task was related to similar levels of increased sympathetic activity for both the PTSD and Pre-Deployed groups, whereas the Combat Equivalent group showed no increased activation during thought suppression. Intrusive traumatic thoughts combined with failures in neutral thought suppression may be a consequence of increased cognitive load in PTSD.     

Harnessing the wandering mind: The role of perceptual load

Perceptual load is a key determinant of distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Lavie, N. (2005). Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75-82). Here we establish the role of perceptual load in determining an internal form of distraction by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs or “mind-wandering”).Four experiments demonstrated reduced frequency of TUTs with high compared to low perceptual load in a visual-search task. Alternative accounts in terms of increased demands on responses, verbal working memory or motivation were ruled out and clear effects of load were found for unintentional TUTs. Individual differences in load effects on internal (TUTs) and external (response-competition) distractors were correlated. These results suggest that exhausting attentional capacity in task-relevant processing under high perceptual load can reduce processing of task-irrelevant information from external and internal sources alike.     

A Pilot Study Assessing the Relationship Between Child Harming Thoughts and Postpartum Depression

This pilot study explored relationships between postpartum mood and child harming thoughts. Fifty mothers from an outpatient pediatric office completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Postpartum Depression Predictors Inventory-Revised (PDPI-R), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Participants also completed the Child Thoughts Inventory (CTI), a modified version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (Y-BOCS) and Florida Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (FOCI). Results indicated significant positive correlations between postpartum depression and anxiety and frequency and intensity of child harming thoughts. In addition, having a poor self-view was significantly correlated with intensity of child harming thoughts and previous anxiety was correlated with both frequency and intensity of child harming thoughts. Despite the fact that mothers experiencing postpartum mood disturbances rarely harm their infants the findings of this pilot study suggest that these women may have frequent and intense ego-dystonic thoughts about harming their children. Results also suggest that postpartum depression and anxiety may share similar cognitive processes.     

论儒家的自强人格及其培养

从心理学角度看,儒学主要体现了一种自强的人格心理学思想。仁爱人格、弘毅人格和革新人格是儒家自强人格的主要内容,其终极目标则是养成健全人格。儒家的自强人格既具有个人取向,也具有社会取向。它以个人取向为基础和出发点,以社会取向为最终目标,从个人取向逐渐扩展至社会取向。实践学习、克服偏私、正确处理理情关系和人际关系是培养儒家自强人格的4个主要途径     

以社会主义核心价值体系引领当代社会思潮

从核心意识形态对民众意识的重要引导作用看,社会主义核心价值体系对当代社会思潮具有重要的引领价值,即用核心价值体系塑造人们的信仰、理想、道德观念,调动大众的主体积极性、主动性,使其成为社会主义核心价值体系的思想上的认同者,行动上的践行者。     

如何看待马克思和恩格斯的思想差别

怎样恰当地看待马克思和恩格斯在思想上的重要差别?“分工说”和“情境说”的解释都是不充分的;把恩格斯视为“第一提琴手”的观点妨碍了客观地看待这种差别;马克思思想的总体取向及马克思、恩格斯在不同意义上谈论马克思学说同达尔文进化论的相关性,表明马克思并未像恩格斯那样肯定自然辩证法;马克思、恩格斯之间的长期合作亦不能排除彼此误解的可能性。