Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:40:31.470Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experimental manipulation of beliefs about the importance of thoughts and the effect on an aggressive impulse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

A. Jiménez-Ros ,
L. Faísca ,
T. Martins ,
L. Janeiro  and
A.T. Martins
A. Jiménez-Ros*
Affiliation:
Psychology Research Centre (CIP/UAL) and Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
L. Faísca
Affiliation:
Centre for Biomedical Research (CBMR) and Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
T. Martins
Affiliation:
Universidade do Algarve
L. Janeiro
Affiliation:
Psychology Research Centre (CIP/UAL) and Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
A.T. Martins
Affiliation:
Centre for Biomedical Research (CBMR) and Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background:

Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder attribute a causal role to maladaptive beliefs.

Aims:

To test this hypothesis, we manipulated Overimportance of Thoughts (OT) beliefs and experimentally evaluated their effect on the response to an induced aggressive impulse.

Method:

Eighty-five participants completed a battery of self-report instruments assessing obsession symptoms, thought control, affectivity and obsessive beliefs, and were then randomly assigned to two conditions. In the experimental condition participants read a scientific abstract on the importance of thought control whilst those in the control condition read a neutral abstract. All participants identified a loved person and imagined feeling the impulse to stab this person, then completed again OT beliefs measures (Overimportance of Thought, Moral-Thought Action Fusion and Thought Action Fusion Likelihood).

Results:

The Moral component of the Thought Action Fusion was reduced by reading a brief text about the possibility and desirability of thought control. However, experimentally induced changes in beliefs did not yield differences in the intrusiveness of the aggressive impulse.

Conclusions:

Some beliefs can be modified through a single session in which information similar to what could be obtained in quotidian life is provided.

Keywords

aggressive intrusionsobsessive-compulsive disorderoverimportance of thought beliefsTAF-Moral beliefs
Type
Brief Clinical Report
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 48 , Issue 5 , September 2020 , pp. 626 - 630
Copyright
© British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belloch, A., Cabedo, E., Morillo, C., Lucero, M., & Carrió, C. (2003). Development of an instrument to assess dysfunctional beliefs in the obsessive-compulsive disorder: preliminary results of the Obsessive Beliefs Inventory. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 3, 235–250.Google Scholar
Clerkin, E. M., Magee, J. C., & Parsons, E. M. (2014). Evaluating change in beliefs about the Importance/Control of Thoughts as a mediator of CBM-I and responses to an ICT stressor. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 3, 311–318. doi: 10.1016/j.jocrd.2014.07.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novara, C., Pastore, M., Ghisi, M., Sica, C., Sanavio, E., & McKay, D. (2011). Longitudinal aspects of obsessive compulsive cognitions in a non-clinical sample: a five-year follow-up study. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42, 317–324. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.01.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (2001). Development and initial validation of the obsessive belief questionnaire and the interpretation of intrusions inventory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 987–1006. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00085-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roncero, M., Belloch, A., & Doron, G. (2018). A novel approach to challenging OCD related beliefs using a mobile-app: an exploratory study. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 59, 157–160. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.01.008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shafran, R., Thordarson, D. S., & Rachman, S. (1996). Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 10, 379–391. doi: 10.1016/0887-6185(96)00018-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jiménez-Ros et al. supplementary material

Jiménez-Ros et al. supplementary material

Download Jiménez-Ros et al. supplementary material(File)
File 16.6 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.