University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Graduate Masters Theses Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses 5-31-2017 Attentional and Emotional Consequences of Emotional Acceptance and Suppression in an Elevated Anxiety Sample Natalie Arbid University of Massachusetts Boston Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.edu/masters_theses Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Arbid, Natalie, "Attentional and Emotional Consequences of Emotional Acceptance and Suppression in an Elevated Anxiety Sample" (2017). Graduate Masters Theses.edu/masters_theses/418 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact library.
ATTENTIONAL AND EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE AND SUPPRESSION IN AN ELEVATED ANXIETY SAMPLE A Thesis Presented by NATALIE ARBID Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS May 2017 Clinical Psychology Program © 2017 by Natalie Arbid All rights reserved ATTENTIONAL AND EMOTIONAL CONSEUQENCES OF EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE AND SUPPRESSION IN AN ELEVATED ANXIETY SAMPLE A Thesis Presented by NATALIE ARBID Approved as to style and content by: ________________________________________________ Lizabeth Roemer, Professor Chairperson of Committee ________________________________________________ Sarah Hayes-Skelton, Associate Professor Member ________________________________________________ Alice S. Carter, Professor Member ____________________________________ David Pantalone, Program Director Clinical Psychology Program ____________________________________ Jane Adams, Chairperson Psychology Department ABSTRACT ATTENTIONAL AND EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE AND SUPPRESSION IN AN ELEVATED ANXIETY SAMPLE May 2017 Natalie Arbid, B. Loyola Marymount University M. University of Massachusetts, Boston Directed by Professor Lizabeth Roemer Acceptance- based strategies have been incorporated into behavioral therapies for anxiety and other disorders (e.
Experimental literature is in need of better, more nuances assessment of the consequences of acceptance (Kohl, Rief & Glombiewski, 2012). Therefore, this study specifically examined the way in which acceptance can increase attentional flexibility and recovery from stress, which are important factors in the maintenance of anxiety disorders (Cisler & Koster, 2010). This experimental study compared acceptance and suppression of emotional experiences, following exposure to fearful stimuli (i., images and film clip), to a control condition. Results indicated that there was no significant relation between dimensional self-ratings of trait and state emotion regulation ability, trait acceptance, disengagement from viewing distressing images, and recovery from distress.
Experimental iv analyses revealed that no emotion regulation strategy- acceptance or suppression- allowed individuals to disengage and recover from the negative images significantly more quickly. Also no emotion regulation strategy led to significantly lower levels of self-reported negative affect and higher willingness to view more distressing images. However, nonsignificant trends of medium to large effect sizes emerged, with unexpected correlational findings suggesting that trait levels of experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties were associated with the ability to disengage from images, while acceptance instructions may have facilitated disengagement following the task. There were several limitations to this study.
First the sample size was small limiting the ability to detect effects of the independent variable (i., emotion regulation instructions). Also randomization was not successful and the conditions were imbalanced on several key variables. Lastly the mood induction was not successful in inducing fear in this sample, therefore limiting ability to comment on participants’ reaction to distress and recovery from distress. Given that there were several limitations to this study, it is important for future research to make the study alterations recommended and conduct further research on this topic.
v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost I want to thank my mentor Liz Roemer for your support, guidance, dedication, and belief in my abilities on this project. Your commitment to mentorship and my personal and professional development is beyond anything I could have hoped for. Thank you for being my full service mentor. I also want to thank all my lab- mates for your ongoing support and kindness.
Thank you to my family for always being incredibly loving and supportive. You have always rooted for me, and nurtured my desire to pursue my dreams (no matter how far away that may take me). I also want to thank my partner Robert Hanna.