L9: Intrusive Thinking Flashcards
Give 2 definitions of an intrusive thought and explain why the first one was revised
1 - conscious, involuntary and unwanted thought
2 - interruptive, salient, experienced mental events
—> the first one was revised because it does not capture all forms of intrusive thoughts, they can be positive and wanted as well
Intrusive images
= representations and the accompanying experience of sensory info without a direct external stimulus
Mood-congruency bias
= when you’re in a certain mood, certain things that you experienced when you were in the same mood can be stimulated
What makes a thought intrusive
The fact that it disturbs you when trying to focus on something else
What are 7 examples of the typical content of intrusions
- emotionally salient events; events that trigger intense emotions
- incompletions
- intentions
- uncertain events
- dissonant facts/events/beliefs
- frequent events/stimuli/ideas (eg. ear worms)
- images; experiences of perception that occur in the absence of external sensory input
What are 3 examples of external or internal triggers of intrusions
- cue-driven retrieval; associations to environmental cues
- matching mood/physiological state; mood-congruency bias
- diminished cognitive control
What are 9 examples of why someone would want to control intrusions
- concentration during tasks
- executing high-performance cognitive/motor skills
- regulating pain
- regulating affect
- persisting in the face of failure; requires successful regulation of thoughts
- justifying inappropriate behavior; people often forget ethical lapses/suppress uncomfortable thoughts
- maintaining attitudes/beliefs; when facts contradict our beliefs we tend to forget that info
- forgiving others/maintaining attachment; easier to suppress thoughts about forgiven offenses —> healthy capacity to forgive and forget
- protecting self-image; mnemic neglect = recent threats to self-image are forgotten; positive self-illusion = healthy individuals think they’re more capable than others say about them that they are
How are intrusions manifested in
1. PTSD
2. OCD
3. Substance use disorders
4. Mood disorder
5. Anxiety
6. Psychosis
7. ADHD
- Recurrent, involuntary, distressing memories of trauma —> re-experiencing, intrusive memories of the trauma
- Unwanted, recurrent, persistent, intrusive thoughts/images/urges; compulsions —> often are ego-dystonic
- Thoughts related to obtaining drugs, re-experiencing, etc —> usually only intrusive in later stages of disease
- Rumination, suicidal thoughts, negative automatic thoughts, “flight of ideas” —> not central to these disorders but feature in areas closely related to the central mechanisms of them
- Anxious arousal = fearful reactions to somatic symptoms or fearful interpretations of them (eg. panic); anxious apprehension = intrusive thoughts related to future events (eg. worry)
- Hallucinations/delusions —> ego-syntonic
- Highly distracted by external/internal things —> may not be able to classify this as intrusions bc they can be distracted by anything and are not necessarily unwanted
Explain the experience/thought sampling paradigm
Have people do a task and report on when/whether they have intrusive thoughts
Give 2 pro’s and 5 con’s of the experience/thought sampling paradigm
Pros;
- naturally occurring intrusions
- translation: lab and real life
Cons;
- requires meta-awareness (can be compromised in clinical populations)
- concept of intrusions is abstract in healthy populations
- no control over event, peri-event factors (intrusions relation to past events)
- no control over timing of intrusions
- involuntariness difficult to verify
Explain the trauma film paradigm
Show people intrusive videos and then have them write down any intrusions in dairy of 1 week
Name 3 pros and 4 cons of the trauma film paradigm
Pros;
- control over event and peri-trauma factors
- golden standard for veracity of memory, allows comparison to measures of voluntary recall
- relatively high ecological validity
Cons;
- requires meta-awareness
- film only a proxy for trauma
- no control over timing of intrusions
- involuntariness difficult to verify
Explain the think-no think paradigm
You give someone a word and instruct them to either suppress or not suppress any thoughts of this word/thing, you then ask them whether/how many times they thought of it
Name 4 pros and 3 cons of the think/no think paradigm
Pros;
- control over event and peri-trauma factors
- golden standard for veracity of memory, allows comparison to measures of voluntary recall
- control over timing of intrusion
- clear inference of involuntariness (participants are asked to suppress, but sometimes fail)
Cons;
- requires meta-awareness
- demand bias (participants are instructed to suppress)
- low ecological validity
What is retrieval suppression not
- white bear suppression (checking whether you ate not thinking about a specific thought)
- expressive suppression (mainly motor control)
- (cognitive) avoidance (of reminders, “not dealing with the problem)
- general distraction (avoiding)
