Abstract
Previous research has shown that thought suppression can ironically enhance the accessibility of negative thoughts when mental control is disabled by competing cognitive demands. This study provided a longitudinal test of the prediction that the combination of thought suppression and stress can promote depressive rumination. An initial assessment identified high and low suppressors who had low levels of rumination and depression. Approximately 10 weeks later, high suppressors—who had experienced relatively high levels of stress—reported significant increases in rumination and dysphoria that exceeded those of any other group. The findings support the idea that when stress undermines mental control, thought suppression efforts can ironically fuel depressive rumination.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bacon, S. J. (1974). Arousal and the range of cue utilization. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 102, 81–87.
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row.
Beck, A. T., & Beamesderfer, A. (1974). Assessment of depression: The depression inventory. In P. Pichot (Ed.), Psychological measurements in psychopharmacology. Modern problems in Pharmacopsychiatry (Vol. 7, pp. 151–169). Basel, Switzerland: Darger.
Beck, A. T., & Beck, R. (1972). Screening depressed patients in family practice: A rapid technic. Postgraduate Medicine, 52, 81–85.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Garbin, M. G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 77–100.
Beevers, C. G., Wenzlaff, R. M., Hayes, A. M., & Scott, W. D. (1999). Depression and the ironic effects of thought suppression. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 6, 133–148.
Blaney, P. H. (1980). Affect and memory: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 229–246.
Blatt, S. H. J., & Homann, E. (1992). Parent–child interaction in the etiology of dependent and self-critical depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 12, 47–91.
Blumberg, S. J. (2000). The White Bear Suppression Inventory: Revisiting its factor structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 943–950.
Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36, 129–148.
Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1989). Depression. In G. W. Harris & T. O. Harris (Eds.), Life events and illness (pp. 49–93). New York: Guilford Press.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267–283.
Cioffi, D., Holloway, J. (1993). Delayed costs of suppressed pain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 274–282.
Cole, D. A., Jacquez, F. M., & Maschman, T. L. (2001). Social origins of depressive cognitions: A longitudinal study of self-perceived competence in children. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 377–396.
Combs, A. W., & Taylor, C. (1952). The effect of the perception of mild degrees of threat on performance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 420–424.
Compas, B. E. (1987). Stress and life events during childhood and adolescence. Clinical Psychological Review, 7, 275–302.
Compas, B. E., Grant, K., & Ey, S. (1994). Psychosocial stress and child and adolescent depression: Can we be more specific? In W. M. Reynolds & H. F. Johnston (Eds.), Handbook of depression in children and adolescents (pp. 509–523). New York: Plenum.
Cutler, S. E., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Accounting for sex differences in depression through female victimization: Childhood sexual abuse. Sex Roles, 24, 425–438.
Davis, R. N., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2000). Cognitive inflexibility among ruminators and nonruminators. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24, 699–711.
Easterbrook, J. A. (1959). The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior. Psychological Review, 56, 183–201.
Ehlers, A., Mayou, R. A., & Bryant, B. (1998). Psychological predictors of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder after motor vehicle accidents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 508–519.
Enns, M. W., Cox, B. J., & Borger, S. C. (2001). Correlates of analogue and clinical depression: A further test of the phenomenological continuity hypothesis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 66, 175–183.
Gibb, B. E., Alloy, L. B., & Tierney, S. (2001). History of childhood maltreatment, negative cognitive styles, and episodes of depression in adulthood. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 425–446.
Gotlib, I. H. (1984). Depression and general psychopathology in university students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 19–30.
Hammen, C. L. (1980). Depression in college students: Beyond the Beck Depression Inventory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 126–128.
Hamilton, V. (1982). Cognition and stress: An information processing model. In L. Goldberger & S. Bresnitz (Eds.), Handbook of stress: Theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 105–120). New York: The Free Press.
Janeck, A. S., & Calamari, J. E. (1999). Thought suppression in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 23, 497–509.
Judd, L. L. (1997). The clinical course of unipolar major depressive disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 989–991.
Kabat-Zinn, J., Lipworth, L., & Burney, R. (1985). The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 149, 936–943.
Kendall, P. C., Hollon, S. D., Beck, A. T., Hammen, C. L., & Ingram, R. E. (1987). Issues and recommendations regarding use of the Beck Depression Inventory. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 11, 289–299.
Klein, G. (1996). The effects of acute stressors on decision making. In J. E. Driskell & E. Salas (Eds.), Stress and human performance (pp. 49–88). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kuehner, C., & Weber, I. (1999). Responses to depression in unipolar depressed patients: An investigation of Nolen-Hoeksema's response styles theory. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1323–1333.
Lightsey, W. R., Jr. (1999). Positive thoughts versus states of mind ratio as a stress moderator: Findings across four studies. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 23, 469–482.
Lyubomirsky, S., Caldwell, N. D., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1998). Effects of ruminative and distracting responses to depressed mood on autobiographical memories and predictions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 166–177.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1993). Self-perpetuating properties of dysphoric rumination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 339–349.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1995). Effects of self-focused rumination on negative thinking and interpersonal problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 176–190.
Lyubomirsky, S., Tucker, K. L., Caldwell, N. D., & Berg, K. (1999). Why ruminators are poor problem solvers: Clues from the phenomenology of dysphoric rumination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1041–1060.
Martin, L. L., & Tesser, A. (1996). Some ruminative thoughts. In R. S. Wyer, Jr. (Ed.), Ruminative thoughts (pp. 1–47). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Miller, J. J., Fletcher, K., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (1995). Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders. General Hospital Psychiatry, 17, 192–200.
Morrow, J., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1990). Effects of responses to depression on the remediation of depressive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 519–527.
Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., & Horselenberg, R. (1996). Individual differences in thought suppression: The White Bear Suppression Inventory: Factor structure, reliability, validity and correlates. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 501–513.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 115–121.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1993). Effects of rumination and distraction on naturally occurring depressed mood. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 561–570.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Morrow, J., & Fredrickson, B. L. (1993). Response styles and the duration of episodes of depressed mood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 20–28.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Parker, L., & Larson, J. (1994). Ruminative coping with depressed mood following loss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 92–104.
Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2000). Treatment of recurrent major depression with attention training. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 7, 407–413.
Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2001). Positive beliefs about depressive rumination: Development and preliminary validation of a self-report scale. Behavior Therapy, 32, 13–26.
Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (1975). Attention and cognitive control. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 55–85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rude, S. S., Wenzlaff, R. M., Gibbs, B., Vane, J., & Whitney, T. (2002). Negative interpretative biases predict subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 423–440.
Salkovskis, P. M., & Reynolds, M. (1994). Thought suppression induces intrusion in naturally occurring negative intrusive thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 281–299.
Sanders, G. S. (1981). Driven by distraction: An integrative review of social facilitation theory and research. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 17, 227–251.
Shiffrin, R. M., & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127–190.
Shipherd, J. C., & Beck, J. G. (1999). The effects of suppressing trauma-related thoughts on women with rape-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 99–112.
Smari, J., Birgisdottir, A. B., Brynjolfsdottir, B. (1995). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and suppression of personally relevant unwanted thoughts. Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 621–625.
Spinhoven, P., & van der Does, A. J. W. (1999). Thought suppression, dissociation and psychopathology. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 877–886.
Sullivan, M. J. L., Rouse, D., Bishop, S., & Johnston, S. (1997). Thought suppression, catastrophizing, and pain. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 21, 555–568.
Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z., & Williams, M. G. (1995). How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 25–39.
van den Hout, M., Merckelbach, H., & Pool, K. (1996). Dissociation, reality monitoring, trauma, and thought suppression. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 24, 97–108.
Vredenburg, K., Flett, G. L., & Krames, L. (1993). Analogue versus clinical depression: A critical reappraisal. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 327–344.
Weary, G., Edwards, J. A., & Jacobson, J. A. (1995). Depression research methodologies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: A reply. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 885–891.
Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34–52.
Wegner, D. M., & Wenzlaff, R. M. (1996). Mental Control. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 466–492). New York: Guilford Press.
Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615–640.
Wells, A. (1990). Panic disorder in association with relaxation induced anxiety: An attentional training approach to treatment. Behavior Therapy, 21, 273–280.
Wenzlaff, R. M. (1993). The mental control of depression: Psychological obstacles to emotional well-being. In D. M. Wegner & J. W. Pennebaker (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 238–257). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Bates, D. E. (1998). Unmasking a cognitive vulnerability to depression: How lapses in mental control reveal depressive thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1559–1571.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Bates, D. E. (2000). The relative efficacy of concentration and suppression strategies of mental control. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1200–1212.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Eisenberg, A. R. (2001). Mental control after dysphoria: Evidence of a suppressed, depressive bias. Behavior Therapy, 32, 27–45.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Grozier, S. A. (1988). Depression and the magnification of failure. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 90–93.
Wenzlaff, R. M., Meier, J., & Salas, D. M. (2002). Thought suppression and memory biases during and after depressive moods. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 403–422.
Wenzlaff, R. M., Rude, S. S., Taylor, C. J., Stultz, C. H., & Sweatt, R. A. (2001). Beneath the veil of thought suppression: Attentional bias and depression risk. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 435–452.
Wenzlaff, R. M., Rude, S. S., & West, L. M. (2002). Cognitive vulnerability to depression: The role of thought suppression and attitude certainty. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 533–548.
Wenzlaff, R. M., & Wegner, D. M. (2000). Thought Suppression. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 59–91.
Wenzlaff, R. M., Wegner, D. M., & Roper, D. W. (1988). Depression and mental control: The resurgence of unwanted negative thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 882–892.
Wood, J. V., Saltzberg, J. A., Neale, J. M., Stone, A. A., & Rachmiel, T. B. (1990). Self-focused attention, coping responses, and distressed mood in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 1027–1036.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wenzlaff, R.M., Luxton, D.D. The Role of Thought Suppression in Depressive Rumination. Cognitive Therapy and Research 27, 293–308 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023966400540
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023966400540