Thought suppression and obsession-compulsion

It was argued that obsession-compulsion might affect the consequences of thought suppression. A group of 35 female students who were first submitted to thought suppression and then to an expression instruction were compared with a group of 38 female students submitted twice to an expression instruction. The emotional character of a target story read by subjects was systematically varied between subjects, and obsession-compulsion was included as a third between-subjects factors. No evidence of rebound or of initial enhancement was found when reported story-related thoughts were compared across instructional conditions. There was an interaction between obsession-compulsion and initial instruction on attempts to avoid target thoughts during the first period. Contrary to expectations obsession-compulsion was related to fewer attempts at suppression in the suppression and more in the expression conditions. Similarly, there was a trend for obsession-compulsion to be related to more frequent target thoughts in the expression and less in the suppression conditions. These findings are discussed in relation to the role of perceived responsibility in obsession-compulsion for thought as a determinant of thought processes of obsessive-compulsive people.