CHRONIC THOUGHT SUPPRESSION

We conducted several tests of the idea that an inclination toward thou ght suppression is associated with obsessive thinking and emotional re activity. Initially, we developed a self-report measure of thought sup pression through successive factor-analytic procedures and found that it exhibited acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability. T his measure, the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), was found to correlate with measures of obsessional thinking and depressive and an xious affect, to predict signs of clinical obsession among individuals prone toward obsessional thinking, to predict depression among indivi duals motivated to dislike negative thoughts, and to predict failure o f electrodermal responses to habituate among people having emotional t houghts. The WBSI was inversely correlated with repression as assessed by the Repression-Sensitization Scale, and so taps a trait that is qu ite unlike repression as traditionally conceived.