Anatomy of the white bear suppression inventory (WBSI): A review of previous findings and a new approach

[en] The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI; Wegner Zanakos, 1994) was originally designed to assess people's inclination toward thought suppression. In this article, we provide a detailed review of previous findings on the structure of this instrument and present a study that took a new statistical approach. It involved an exploratory factor analysis of the French WBSI using the weighted least squares mean and variance estimator as well as parametric item response theory analyses. Results clearly supported a 2-factor structure with a suppression and an intrusion dimension. Follow-up regression analyses revealed that intrusion significantly predicted anxiety and depression scores, whereas suppression did not.

Disciplines :

Neurosciences & behavior

Author, co-author :

Schmidt, Ralph E.; University of Geneva, Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Rue des Battoirs 7, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland, Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Gay, Philippe; University of Geneva, Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Rue des Battoirs 7, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland, Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Courvoisier, Delphine; Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Jermann, Françoise; University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland

Ceschi, Grazia; Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

David, Melissa; Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Brinkmann, Kerstin; Geneva Motivation Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Van der Linden, Martial ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Département de Psychologie

Language :

English

Title :

Anatomy of the white bear suppression inventory (WBSI): A review of previous findings and a new approach

Publication date :

2009

Journal title :

Journal of Personality Assessment

ISSN :

0022-3891

eISSN :

1532-7752

Publisher :

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, United States - New Jersey

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

323-330

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 25 February 2020

Statistics

Number of views

187 (0 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

580 (0 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Beauducel, A., & Herzberg, P. Y. (2006). On the performance of maximum likelihood versus means and variance adjusted weighted least squares estimation in CFA. Structural Equation Modeling, 13, 186-203.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy for depression. New York: Guilford.
Beck,A.T., Steer,R. A.,&Brown,G.K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1998). Inventaire de D́epression de Beck (2̀eme ́ed.): Manuel [Beck Depression Inventory (2nd ed.): Manual]. Paris: Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliqúee (ECPA).
Blumberg, S. J. (2000). The White Bear Suppression Inventory: Revisiting its factor structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 943-950.
Clark, D. A. (Ed.). (2005). Intrusive thoughts in clinical disorders. New York: Guilford.
Derogatis, L. R. (2000). SCL-90-R. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol. 7, pp. 192-193).Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4, 272-299.
Floyd, F. J., & Widaman, K. F. (1995). Factor analysis in the development and refinement of clinical assessment instruments. Psychological Assessment, 7, 286-299.
Hodping, W., & de Jong-Meyer, R. (2003). Differentiating unwanted intrusive thoughts from thought suppression: What does the White Bear Suppression Inventory measure? Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1049-1055.
Horn, J. L. (1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30, 179-185.
ISI Web of Knowledge. (2008). Web of science. Retrieved June 3, 2008, from http://apps.isiknowledge.com
Lucero, M. (2002). Pensamientos intrusivos en poblacíon general [Intrusive thoughts in the normal population]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Luciano, J. V., Belloch, A., Algarabel, S., Toḿas, J. M., Morillo, C., & Lucero, M. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis of the White Bear Suppression Inventory and the Thought Control Questionnaire: A comparison of alternative models. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 250-258.
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 487-495.
Muris, P.,Merckelbach, H.,&Horselenberg, R. (1996). Individual differences in thought suppression. TheWhite Bear Suppression Inventory: Factor structure, reliability, validity and correlates. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 501-513.
Muth́en, L., & Muth́en, B. (2006). Mplus user's guide (4th ed.). Los Angeles: Muth́en and Muth́en.
Najmi, S., & Wegner, D. M. (2008). Thought suppression and psychopathology. In A. J. Elliott (Ed.), Handbook of approach and avoidance motivation (pp. 447-459). New York: Psychology Press.
Palm, K.M., & Strong, D. R. (2007). Using item response theory to examine the White Bear Suppression Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 87-98.
Purdon, C. (2004). Empirical investigations of thought suppression in OCD. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 35, 121-136.
Purdon, C., Rowa, K., & Antony, M. M. (2007). Diary records of thought suppression by individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 35, 47-59.
Rachman, S.,&Hodgson, R. J. (1980). Obsessions and compulsions. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Rafnsson, F. D., & Sḿari, J. (2001). Chronic thought suppression and obsessionality: The relationships between the White Bear Suppression Inventory and two inventories of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 159-165.
Rassin, E. (2003). The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) focuses on failing suppression attempts. European Journal of Personality, 17, 285-298.
Rassin, E. (2005). Thought suppression. Oxford, England: Elsevier.
Reise, S. P., Ainsworth, A. T., & Haviland, M. G. (2005). Item response theory: Fundamentals, applications, and promise in psychological research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 95-101.
Rost, J.,&von Davier,M. (1994).Aconditional item fit index for Raschmodels. Applied Psychological Measurement, 18, 171-182.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1993). Manuel de l'inventaire d'anxíet́e ́etat-trait: Forme Y (STAI-Y) [Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI (Form Y)] (M. Bruchon- Schweitzer & I. Paulhan, Trans.). Paris: Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliqúee.
Spinhoven, P., & van der Does, A. J. W. (1999). Thought suppression, dissociation and psychopathology. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 877-886.
Velicer, W. F. (1976). Determining the number of components from the matrix of partial correlations. Psychometrika, 41, 321-327.
Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes ofmental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.
Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R., III, & White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 5-13.
Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615-640.
Wells, A., & Davies, M. I. (1994). The Thought Control Questionnaire: A measure of individual differences in the control of unwanted thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 871-878.