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Mental Control After Dysphoria: Evidence of a Suppressed, Depressive Bias
Richard M. Wenzlaff and Ann R. Eisenberg, University of Texas at San Antonio

Previous research has generally failed to find persistent negative thinking following a depressive episode, suggesting that negative thoughts may simply be by-products of the emotional disturbance. The present research examined the idea that a persistent depressive bias does exist, but it is obscured by thought suppression. Mental control theory suggests that suppressed thoughts can be detected by assessing cognition before the effortful process of distraction is implemented. To test this prediction, formerly dysphoric, chronically dysphoric, and nondysphoric control groups interpreted audio recordings of words-some of which included homophones with emotional alternatives relevant to depression (e.g., weak/week). Participants wrote down each word either immediately or after a 10-sec delay. Although formerly dysphoric individuals did not display a depressive bias in the delayed condition, their immediate responses revealed a depressive bias. As predicted, the emergence of a negative bias was associated with high levels of chronic thought suppression.

Appraisal of Obsessional Thought Recurrences: Impact on Anxiety and Mood State
Christine Purdon, University of Waterloo

Recent cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) emphasize the role of thwarted control efforts in the escalation of thought frequency, negative thought appraisal, and subsequent negative mood state in the development and persistence of the disorder. To date, no studies have investigated the relationship between in vivo appraisal of thought recurrences and distress over obsessional thoughts and subsequent mood state. In the present study, 84 nonclinical individuals completed a measure of general thought appraisal and then were randomly assigned to suppress or not suppress their most upsetting obsessional thought during an initial thought-monitoring interval. In a second interval, all participants received the "do not suppress" instructions. Suppression was not associated with an increase in thought frequency either immediately or subsequently. However, results indicated that appraisal of thought recurrences as signifying the presence of undesirable personality characteristics and as portending future negative events was a significant predictor of immediate and subsequent anxiety, as well as more negative mood state. Natural active resistance to the thought was predicted by in vivo appraisal of the importance of regaining thought control. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical implications.

Prevalence and Predictors of Acute Stress Disorder and PTSD Following Road Traffic Accidents: Thought Control Strategies and Social Support
Vassiliki Holeva, Nicholas Tarrier, and Adrian Wells, University of Manchester

The study examined the prevalence of acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following road traffic accidents (RTAs), and cross-sectional and prospective relationships with thought-control strategies and perceived social support and criticism from a key significant other. Four hundred and thirty-four consecutive admissions to accident and emergency clinics following an RTA were assessed within 4 weeks of the accident, and 265 reassessed within 6 months. Twenty-one percent met symptom criteria for ASD at initial assessment, and 23% met criteria for PTSD at 4 to 6 months post-accident. These results agree closely with other studies recruiting similar populations in a similar manner. Subjects classified as suffering ASD at initial assessment were 20 times (odds ratio = 20.04) more likely to be classified as suffering PTSD at follow-up. Of the ASD cases assessed at Time 1, 72% were PTSD cases at Time 2. Loss, individual differences in thought-control strategies, and perceived negative quality of social support independently predicted ASD at Time 1 and PTSD at Time 2 in cross-sectional analyses. Analysis of prospective predictors of PTSD at Time 2 indicated that ASD at Time 1, the use of worry to control thoughts at Time 1, a change in perceived social support from Time 1 to Time 2, and an interaction between perceived social support and the use of social control as a coping strategy at Time 1 significantly predicted subsequent PTSD. Those who rated highly on the use of social control and on perceived negative social support had greater probability of subsequently developing PTSD (odds ratio = 8.2). The results were mainly as predicted and conform to models of trauma in which persistent disorders are associated with inhibition of emotional processing.

Further Tests of a Cognitive Model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Metacognitions and Worry in GAD, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Depression, and Nonpatients
Adrian Wells, University of Manchester, and Karin Carter, Salford NHS Trust

Advances in treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are likely to result from a better understanding of the dysfunctional cognitive mechanisms underlying persistent worrying. In a cognitive model of GAD, Wells (1995) proposed that pathological worry is maintained by maladaptive metacognitions (negative beliefs about worry concerning uncontrollability and danger, and negative appraisal of worrying [meta-worry]) and linked behaviors. Twenty-four patients with GAD were compared with sex-matched groups-social phobia, panic disorder, and nonpatients-on measures of negative metacognitions and worry. It was hypothesized that patients with GAD would obtain higher negative metacognitive belief scores and higher meta-worry scores than the other groups; differences in negative metacognitions would be independent of the general frequency of worry. A group of individuals with major depression was also examined as a subsidiary exploration of relative metacognitive and worry characteristics of this disorder. All of the hypotheses were upheld in the univariate ANOVAs. There was a loss of one hypothesized significant difference between the GAD and panic disorder groups in meta-worry when general worry frequency was controlled. However, the GAD group still had higher meta-worry scores than the panic group. This effect appears to be the result of patients with panic having intermediate meta-worry scores falling between the GAD and other groups. Differences between the GAD group and all other groups in negative metacognitive beliefs concerning uncontrollability and danger remained when general worry was controlled. The results add further support to the cognitive model, and treatment implications are briefly discussed.

How Much Observational Data Is Enough? An Empirical Test Using Marital Interaction Coding
Richard E. Heyman, Bushra R. Chaudhry, Dominique Treboux, Judith Crowell, Chiyoko Lord, Dina Vivian, and Everett B. Waters, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Using three different samples of couples (clinic, nondistressed community, and engaged), we found that 15 minutes was sufficient to witness enough behavior to make reliable (i.e., internally consistent) estimations of most Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (Heyman & Vivian, 1993) code frequencies. Ten minutes is sufficient for many codes of interest. The ease in which "how much time is necessary" calculations can be made should entice behavioral investigators from a variety of content areas to publish such figures. By empirically investigating a factor that in most fields becomes reified through convention, investigators can conduct observational research that is both maximally efficient and maximally scientifically defensible.

Family Transmission of Depressive Symptoms: Replication Across Caucasian and African American Mother-Child Dyads
Deborah J. Jones, Rex Forehand, and Erin M. Neary,
University of Georgia

This study examined the longitudinal association between maternal and child depressive symptoms, as well as the role of mother-child relationship quality as a mediator of this association. The proposed model was examined across two samples that varied by ethnicity, economic status, and age, among other variables. The findings indicated that maternal depressive symptoms predicted child depressive symptoms and progression of child depressive symptoms over a 2-year period. However, little support was found for mother-child relationship quality mediating the longitudinal association between maternal and child depressive symptoms in either sample. The replication of findings across the two samples provides strong support for the generalizability of the family transmission of depressive symptoms from mother to child. Clinical implications of findings for the development of prevention and intervention efforts aimed at mildly to moderately distressed Caucasian and African American families are discussed.

Core Beliefs in Bulimia Nervosa and Depression: The Discriminant Validity of Young's Schema Questionnaire
Glenn Waller, St. George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, Rajshree Shah, University College London, Vartouhi Ohanian, West Middlesex University Hospital, and Peter Elliott, University of Southampton

It has been suggested that depression and bulimia nervosa share common patterns of core beliefs, despite their differences in more superficial levels of cognition (negative automatic thoughts; dysfunctional assumptions). Although recent research appears to support this proposal, its methodological limitations precluded the ability to assess potentially important differences in core beliefs across the groups. The present study addresses those limitations, assessing a broad range of core beliefs among five groups: nonclinical women, nondepressed bulimics, mildly depressed bulimics, severely depressed bulimics, and major depressive disorder patients. Young's Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) was used as the measure of core beliefs. All of the clinical groups reported less healthy core beliefs than the comparison women, but the major depressive disorder patients and the severely depressed bulimics had more unhealthy core beliefs than the nondepressed bulimics. Multivariate analysis demonstrated differences between all five groups, including the depressed patients and the severely depressed bulimics. These findings support the discriminant validity of the YSQ, suggesting that bulimia and depression are differentiated by core beliefs as well as by more superficial cognitive representations. These preliminary results suggest that the YSQ may be a clinically useful measure of schema-level representations in these disorders, although it will also be necessary to consider the role of schema process in different disorders. If the role of core beliefs in depression and bulimia is confirmed in future research, then there may be a need to adapt cognitive-behavioral treatments for these disorders accordingly.

Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia
Karin Gruber, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Patrick J. Moran, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Walton T. Roth, Stanford University School of Medicine and VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and C. Barr Taylor, Stanford University School of Medicine

We investigated the usefulness of a hand-held computer as a therapeutic adjunct to cognitive-behavioral group treatment (CBGT) for social phobia. Social phobics (n = 54) were randomly assigned to a 12-session CBGT, 8-session CBGT utilizing a hand-held computer (CaCBGT) to facilitate homework assignments, or to a wait-list control group (WL). At posttreatment, CBGT was significantly better than WL on all self-report measures and most measures of a behavioral assessment test. CaCBGT was significantly better than WL on most measures of the behavioral assessment test, but there were no significant differences on self-report measures. At posttreatment and at follow-up there were no significant differences between CBGT and CaCBGT except that participants in the CaCBGT had significantly more positive thoughts than did participants in the CBGT at posttreatment (but not follow-up). CBGT initially appeared to have stronger effects than CaCBGT on reducing social phobia symptoms. However, by follow-up, CBGT and CaCBGT appeared to be equally effective in reducing symptoms and improving behaviors associated with social phobia.

Can Cognitive Restructuring Reduce the Disruption Associated With Perfectionistic Concerns?
Patricia Marten DiBartolo, Randy O. Frost, Ashley Dixon, and Sarah Almodovar, Smith College

We investigated the utility of a brief cognitive restructuring intervention in inoculating perfectionists from their typical negative responses to evaluative threat. In particular, we wanted to examine whether cognitive restructuring could reduce perfectionists' negative affect and cognitions about a speech task. We were also interested in analyzing the pattern of within-session change across a variety of affective and cognitive measures as a function of this cognitive intervention. Sixty female undergraduate students delivered a speech before a small audience. We used a 2 (Group) x 2 (Condition) design to investigate the effects of perfectionism and intervention type on subjects' negative affect and cognitions related to the evaluative task. Participants high and low in perfectionistic concern over mistakes (CM; group) were randomly assigned to receive either a cognitive restructuring or distraction intervention (Condition) prior to the speech task. Individuals high in CM reported significantly more negative cognitive and affective responses to the evaluative task than low CM subjects, however, cognitive restructuring was successful in reducing cost and probability estimates for all subjects' most feared prediction for the impending speech. Moreover, these cognitive changes were associated with lower ratings of self-reported anxiety in comparison to subjects in the distraction condition. Interestingly, cognitive restructuring did not affect subjects' more global ratings of negative affect or negative thoughts about the speech. Our results provide some preliminary but encouraging implications for the effectiveness of cognitive restructuring in the treatment of perfectionism.

The Relation Between Anxiety and Skill in Performance-Based Anxiety Disorders: A Behavioral Formulation of Social Phobia
Derek R. Hopko, Daniel W. McNeil, Michael J. Zvolensky, and Georg H. Eifert, West Virginia University

Anxiety-related responding and skill deficits have historically been associated with performance-based anxiety disorders such as social phobia. Prominent cognitive-behavioral models of social phobia have typically deemphasized skill deficits and focused more on the effects of negative cognition on social performance. Considering that empirical accounts of the relation between social skill and social performance are generally modest, the impact of skill deficits on the development and maintenance of performance inadequacies may be relatively neglected in theoretical paradigms in this area. A second problem that has plagued social skill research is the misuse of the term skill deficit as a synonym for performance deficit. In response to these issues, we utilize the multilevel framework of psychological behaviorism to offer a more parsimonious account of the relation between anxiety and skill in social phobia. We argue that this integrated model assimilates contemporary accounts of social phobia and uniquely expands upon them by delineating the unique and cumulative effects of skill and anxiety on social performance. We further suggest that this model resolves existing theoretical incompatibilities, facilitates improved patient-treatment matching, and shows promise as a guiding framework for empirical research.