The Limits of “I Won’t” Power
Pages 209–210—Tolstoy story:
Recounted
in preface to Wegner, D. M.
White Bears and Other
Unwanted Thoughts: Suppression, Obsession, and the Psychology of Mental Control
. New York:
Guilford, 1994.
Page 210—White bear study transcript:
From p. 3 of Wegner, D. M.
White Bears and Other
Unwanted Thoughts: Suppression, Obsession, and the Psychology of Mental Control
. New York:
Guilford, 1994.
Page 211—Ironic rebound examples:
Wegner, D. M. “How to Think, Say,
or Do Precisely the
Worst Thing for Any Occasion.”
Science
325 (2009): 48–50.
Page 211—Dreaming of crushes:
Wegner, D. M., R. M. Wenzlaff, and M. Kozak. “Dream
Rebound: The Return of Suppressed Thoughts in Dreams.”
Psychological Science
15 (2004): 232–
36.
Page 211—Homophobic men and gay porn:
Adams, H. E., L. W. Wright, Jr., and B. A. Lohr. “Is
Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal?”
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
105 (1996):
440–45.
Pages 212–213—Brain processes forbidden content:
Giuliano, R. J., and N. Y. Wicha. “Why the
White Bear Is Still There: Electrophysiological Evidence for Ironic Semantic Activation During
Thought Suppression.”
Brain Research
1316 (2010): 62–74.
Page 213—If I think it, it must be true:
Tversky, A., and D. Kahneman. “Availability: A Heuristic
for Judging Frequency and Probability.”
Cognitive Psychology
5 (1973): 207–32.
Page 213—Plane crash statistics:
Barnett, A. “Cross-National Differences in Aviation Safety
Records.”
Transportation Science
44 (2010): 322–32.
Page 214—Suicidal student story:
Jaffe, E. “The Science Behind Secrets.”
APS Observer
, July
2006.
Page 215—Accepting thoughts helps them go away:
Giuliano, R. J., and N. Y. Wicha. “Why the
White Bear Is Still There: Electrophysiological Evidence for Ironic Semantic Activation During
Thought Suppression.”
Brain Research
1316 (2010): 62–74.
Page 215—Thought suppression and depression:
Wegner, D. M., and S. Zanakos. “Chronic
Thought Suppression.”
Journal of Personality
62 (1994): 616–40. See also Muris, P., H.
Merckelbach, and R. Horselenberg. “Individual Differences in Thought Suppression. The White Bear
Suppression Inventory:
Factor Structure, Reliability, Validity and Correlates.”
Behaviour Research
and Therapy
34: 501–13.
Page 215—Suppressing sad thoughts makes people sad:
Wegner, D. M., R. Erber, and S.
Zanakos. “Ironic Processes in the Mental Control of Mood and Mood-Related Thought.”
Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology
65 (1993): 1093–104.
Page 215—Thought suppression and self-esteem:
Borton, J. L. S., L. J. Markowitz, and J.
Dieterich. “Effects of Suppressing Negative Self-Referent Thoughts on Mood and Self–Esteem.”
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
24 (2005): 172–90.
P
age 216—Suppressing anxiety increases anxiety:
Koster, E. H. W., E. Rassin, G. Crombez, and G.
W. B. Näring. “The Paradoxical Effects of Suppressing Anxious Thoughts During Imminent Threat.”
Behaviour Research and Therapy
41 (2003): 1113–20. See also Hofmann, S. G., S. Heering, A. T.
Sawyer, and A. Asnaani. “How to Handle Anxiety:
The Effects of Reappraisal, Acceptance, and
Suppression Strategies on Anxious Arousal.”
Behaviour Research and Therapy
47 (2009): 389–94.
Pages 216–217—Thought suppression and psychological disorders:
Beck, J. G., B. Gud-
mundsdottir, S. A. Palyo, L. M. Miller, and D. M. Grant. “Rebound Effects Following Deliberate
Thought Suppression: Does PTSD Make a Difference?”
Behavior Therapy
37 (2006): 170–80. See
also Becker, E. S., M. Rinck, W. T. Roth, and J. Mar-graf. “Don’t Worry and Beware of White Bears:
Thought Suppression in Anxiety Patients.”
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
12 (1998): 39–55. See also
Tolin, D. F., J. S. Abramowitz, A. Przeworski, and E. B. Foa. “Thought Suppression in Obsessive-
Compulsive Disorder.”
Behaviour Research and Therapy
40 (2002): 1255–74.
Page 217—Social anxiety in the brain:
Goldin, P. R., T. Manber, S. Hakimi, T. Canli, and J. J.
Gross. “Neural Bases of Social Anxiety Disorder: Emotional Reactivity and Cognitive Regulation
During Social and Physical Threat.”
Archives of General Psychiatry
66 (2009): 170–80.
Pages 217–218—Acceptance reduces stress of social anxiety:
Goldin, P. R., W. Ramel, and J. J.
Gross. “Mindfulness Meditation Training and Self-Referential
Processing in Social Anxiety
Disorder: Behavioral and Neural Effects.”
Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy
23 (2009): 242–57.
See also Goldin, P. R., and J. J. Gross. “Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on
Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder.”
Emotion
10 (2010): 83–91.
Page 222—Suppressing thoughts of chocolate:
Erskine, J. A. K. “Resistance Can Be Futile:
Investigating Behavioural Rebound.”
Appetite
50 (2008): 415–21. See also Erskine, J. A. K., and G.
J. Georgiou. “Effects of Thought Suppression on Eating Behaviour in Restrained and Non-Restrained
Eaters.”
Appetite
54 (2010): 499–503.
Page 222—Chocolate cravers study:
Rezzi, S., Z. Ramadan, F. P. Martin, L. B. Fay, P. van
Bladeren, J. C. Lindon, J. K. Nicholson, and S. Kochhar. “Human Metabolic Phenotypes Link
Directly to Specific Dietary Preferences in Healthy Individuals.”
Journal of Proteome Research
6
(2007): 4469–77.
Page 223—Dieting and thought suppression:
Barnes, R. D., and S. Tantleff-Dunn. “Food for
Thought: Examining the Relationship between Food Thought Suppression
and Weight-Related
Outcomes.”
Eating Behaviors
11 (2010): 175–79.
Page 223—Dieting doesn’t work:
Mann, T., A. J. Tomiyama, E. Westling, A. M. Lew, B. Samuels,
and J. Chatman. “Medicare’s Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer.”
American Psychologist
62 (2007): 220–33.
Pages 223–224—Restriction increases cravings:
Hill, A. J. “The Psychology of Food Craving.”
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
66 (2007): 277–85. See also Polivy, J., J. Coleman, and C. P.
Herman. “The Effect of Deprivation on Food Cravings and Eating Behavior in Restrained and
Unrestrained Eaters.”
International Journal of Eating Disorders
38 (2005): 301–09.
Page 225—Hershey’s Kisses study:
Forman, E. M., K. L. Hoffman, K. B. McGrath, J. D. Herbert,
L. L. Brandsma, and M. R. Lowe. “A Comparison of Acceptance-and Control-Based Strategies for
Coping with Food Cravings: An Analog Study.”
Behaviour Research and Therapy
45 (2007): 2372–
86.
Page 227—Ending food prohibition:
Provencher, V., C. Begin, A.
Tremblay, L. Mongeau, L.
Corneau, S. Dodin, S. Boivin, and S. Lemieux. “Health-at-Every-Size and Eating Behaviors: 1-Year
Follow-up Results of a Size Acceptance Intervention.”
Journal of the American Dietetic Association
109 (2009): 1854–61. See also Gagnon-Girouard, M. P., C. Begin, V. Provencher, A. Tremblay, L.
Mongeau, S. Boivin, and S. Lemieux. “Psychological Impact of a ‘Health-at-Every-Size’ Intervention
on Weight-Preoccupied Overweight/Obese Women.”
Journal of Obesity
2010 (2010).
Page 229—The smokers’ torture test:
Bowen, S., and A. Marlatt. “Surfing the Urge: Brief
Mindfulness-Based Intervention for College Student Smokers.”
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
23 (2009): 666–71.
Page 231—Mindfulness prevents relapse:
Bowen, S., N. Chawala, S. E. Collins, K. Witkiewitz,
S. Hsu, J. Grow, S. Clifasefi, et al. “Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Substance Use
Disorders: A Pilot Efficacy Trial.”
Substance Abuse
30 (2009): 295–305. See also Witkiewitz, K.,
and S. Bowen. “Depression, Craving, and Substance Use Following a Randomized Trial of
Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention.”
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
78 (2010):
362–74.
