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

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