I must not think about drink! : an investigation into the relationship between thought suppression, implicit cognition and drinking behaviour

• Main Author: Taylor, M.
• Published: University of Liverpool 2014
• Subjects: 362.292
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.706568

This thesis is divided into two main sections: a systematic review and an empirical paper. Supporting documents and supplementary information can be found in the appendices. Thesis sections and how they are linked will be outlined in this chapter. Chapter 1 (Systematic Literature Review) The aim of this chapter is to systematically review the role of thought suppression in alcohol use. Many alcohol-dependent patients undergoing treatment report using cognitive strategies such as suppression in their attempts to suppress thoughts or cravings about alcohol. However, the evidence on thought suppression suggests that this strategy can have paradoxical effects in that it makes the to-be-avoided thoughts more accessible (Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000). Klein (2007) found that attempts to suppress alcohol-related thoughts made them hyper-accessible during an alcohol Stroop task in an abstinent alcohol-dependent group but not in a control group of social drinkers. Attempts have been made to counteract thought suppression using mindfulness-based practices (Bowen et al., 2007) as mindfulness encourages acceptance of thoughts rather than suppressing them (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). The findings are discussed in terms of their strengths, limitations, clinical implications and future research. Given the evidence from the review, it was hypothesised that thought suppression was linked to attentional avoidance of alcohol-related cues as seen on measures such as the visual probe task i.e. when alcohol-dependent individuals make a deliberate effort to look away from the alcohol pictures presented for 500ms or longer. The empirical paper aimed to investigate this prediction.