My presentation for the Social Futures Institute. November 2010

1. Examining the roles of Acceptance
and Suppression in Relaxation
Dr. Christopher Wilson
Psychology
24/11/10

2. Overview
• Background
• Experiment
• Discussion

3. WHAT IS RELAXATION?

4. A state of equilibrium that
is free from psychological
or physiological tension.

5. WHAT’S INVOLVED IN RELAXATION?

6. The relaxation process
Muscular
Autonomic Cognitive
(Poppen, 1998)

7. Release of tension
in the skeletal
muscular system
Jacobson (1928)

8. A state of
parasympathetic
control
Benson (1975)

9. Self-
focused
A form of selective
attention
(Boals, 1978)

10. Different techniques emphasise one or
more components
Muscular
Autonomic Cognitive
However, they all acknowledge overlap & interaction.

11. THE RELAXATION PARADOX

12. “An effort to relax
is a failure to
relax”
(Lehrer et al., 2007)

13. Increased self-
focus is also
associated with
anxiety (GAD)
(Wolff & Jones, 1993)

14. Aversion to
private events
Relaxation Effort or control
Induced
Anxiety
Focus on anxious
(Heide & Berkovec, 1984)
thoughts
Unwillingness to
attend to private
events

15. Private events can be perceived as
threatening
Unexplained arousal Negative evaluation can
evaluated as negative increase physiological
responses
Malash (1979) Rey et al. (2009)

16. More than just
what I attend to,
it’s how I attend
to it

17. PASSIVITY

18. A detached attitude towards
the outcome of a
concentrated activity

19. Passivity has been described in a
number of ways
Intention • A Passive attitude towards
(Benson, 1975)
the outcome
Attention • Passive attention to
(Davidson & Schwartz, 1976)
stimuli enter awareness
Evaluation • Private events not viewed
(e.g. Rey, 2009)
as aversive

20. Passivity is not the
default approach
• Suppression of
anxious thoughts and
sensations
• Paradoxical effects
occur under
increased cognitive
load
(Wegner et al, 1997)

21. Passivity is counter-intuitive
“When success in the majority
of areas of living results from
goal-directed striving”
(Smith, 1996)

22. Attempts to explain passivity are often
ambiguous
Let go
Clear your mind
Relax
Don’t panic

23. PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCEPTANCE

24. Experiential Avoidance is a commonly-
used strategy
Thoughts and feelings are transient internal
phenomena
However
They are often perceived as accurate
representations of reality
Greco et al. (2008)

25. Psychological Acceptance promotes
contact with private events
Do not seek to alter the content or frequency of
private events directly.
Instead
Seek to alter the context and function so as to
diminish their behavioural impact.
Greco et al. (2008)

26. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
(ACT)
Seeks to increase psychological flexibility so that
valued actions may be achieved regardless of
thoughts or feelings at any particular moment.
Hayes et al. (1999)

27. PRECEDENTS FOR THE CURRENT
STUDY

28. Acceptance-like instructions resulted
in lower arousal
Wegner et al. (1997)

29. Behavioural suppression task
increased arousal
Wilson et al. (In preparation)

30. CURRENT STUDY: EXAMINING THE
UTILITY OF BRIEF INTERVENTIONS

31. Overall aim of the current research
To examine the efficacy of interventions in
reducing physiological arousal and subjective
anxiety levels

32. Design
Participants
5 groups (n=19)
N=95
IV = Intervention Received
Non-clinical
DV1 = Arousal (SCL / SCR)
University students
DV2 = Subjective Anxiety
Methodology
Measures
Stressor
Tonic Skin Conductance Level
Ongoing Academic Task
Self-report Anxiety
Intermittent Stimulus Presentation
Anticipatory SCR
(Computer-based)

33. General Experimental Sequence
Baseline Measurements
Stressor Task 1
Interventions
Stressor Task 2
Post-test Measurements

34. STRESSOR TASK

35. Stressor Task
Baseline Measurements
Stressor Task 1
Interventions
Stressor Task 2
Post-test Measurements

36. Stressor task was designed to mirror
anxiety process
Events Constant Event
Event is
evaluated monitoring enters suppressed
as negative for events awareness
(Wegner, 1994, 1997)

37. Stressor task was designed to mirror
anxiety process
Event
Warning cognitive load =
Increased Option to occurs at
prior to academic task
Ongoing suppress
random
event event
intervals
Previous study established that “forced”
suppression increased anxiety

38. INTERVENTIONS

39. Interventions
Baseline Measurements
Stressor Task 1
Interventions
Stressor Task 2
Post-test Measurements

40. Interventions
• Video clips
• Offered strategies for dealing with potential
anxiety resulting from stressor test
• Metaphor-style (Moreira et al, 2008)
• Rated for consistency with rationale

41. • Accept anxiety without
Acceptance avoidance or removal
• Watch for and remove anxiety
Suppression that enters awareness
• Awareness of anxiety maintain
Mindfulness focus on task
• Tolerate anxiety and continue
Endurance with task
• Unrelated content
Placebo

42. MEASURES OF ANXIETY LEVEL

43. Self Report Measures
Baseline Measurements
Stressor Task 1
Interventions
Stressor Task 2
Post-test Measurements
15 item questionnaire describing current state
Based on Wegner et al, (1997)

44. Physiological arousal: Skin
Conductance
• Results from activation of ANS
• Sensitive to changes in emotional states
• SCL = Over time period
• SCR= Specific stimuli/events

45. Physiological Arousal
Baseline Measurements
Stressor Task 1
Interventions
Stressor Task 2
Post-test Measurements

46. RESULTS

47. Subjective Anxiety Levels Changed
Relaxation
Anxiety
Significant effect for time but not for condition

48. Physiological Arousal Changed
Difference in SCL Pre- and Post-Intervention

49. Significant Differences in Physiological
Arousal
• Acceptance Vs Placebo
• Acceptance Vs Suppression
• Mindfulness Vs Placebo

50. DISCUSSION

51. Findings
• Suggests a role for Acceptance in relaxation
protocols
• Reinforces previous findings on Suppression
• Suggests Acceptance is different to
Mindfulness and Endurance

52. Points of discussion
• Differences in physiological and subjective
measures
• Short length of interventions
• Physiological changes consistent but not large
• Generalisability of task

53. Further questions
• Deeper examination of processes within
interventions
• Further examination of different
warning/event arousal patterns
• Examining derived relational aspect of anxiety

54. THANK YOU – QUESTIONS?