Rebekah Cheng

Annotated Bibliography

Abramowitz, J., Berman, N.C., Pardue, C., & Wheaton M.G. (2010). The relationship between

religion and thought action fusion: Use of an in vivo paradigm. Behaviour Research and

Therapy, 48, 670-674.

Although personal history or environment may be potential causes of TAF, research
shows that religion may come to play. In an experiment, a group of 43 highly religious
Protestant Christians and 30 Atheists/Agnostics were given the same scenarios to think
about but they exhibited extremely difference responses. In all trials, the religious group
was found to exhibit greater anxiety, rate the moral wrongness and probability higher,
and showed more neutralizing behavior in hopes to reduce their concern. This
relationship is prevalent amongst spiritual individuals due to the literature limitations that
they have abided by. Thus, the feeling of guilt and worry is heightened. These findings
completely stretch previous understandings of the roots of thought action fusion but this
extension is very applicable for those who consider themselves to be relatively spiritual.
Perhaps, the results could also benefit the general community in explaining why some
experience intrusive thoughts occur more often than others.

Berle, D., & Starcevic, V. (2005). Thoughtaction fusion: Review of the literature and future

directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 263 284.

Despite the common belief that mental thoughts reveal insight to morality, those ideas,
for the most part, do not lead to action. Instead, they can be indications of the multiple
theories and disorders associated with Thought-Action Fusion like OCD and other
anxiety related complications. This source reveals multiple perspectives on the
correlation between mentality and action, even delving into the idea of magical thinking,
an seemingly arbitrary yet common phenomenon. It serves as a great resource to develop
more unbiased and detailed questions and insight on our natural processes. Furthermore,
for individuals who tend to overthink certain situations, this source will be vital towards
discerning if TAF is merely a belief or appraisal or a state or a trait.

Coles, M. E., Mennin D.S., & Heimberg R.G. (2001). Distinguishing obsessive features and

worries: The roles of thought-action fusion. Behavior Research and Therapy, 39, 947

959.
Over time, psychologists have established that there is a line drawn between individuals
who develop psychological disorders as a result of their thoughts and those who simply
have these concerning mental lapses. In this article, a research conducted on a group of
 173 undergraduate students established differentiating factors between OCD and worry.
As a result, the APA established that thought-action fusion leads towards disorders when
they are recurrent and persistent, quelling self-diagnosed fears for individuals who may
be perfect fine even if they are not aware of it. This article provides surface
knowledge on extreme circumstances for those who develop GAD or OCD as a result of
reoccurring, aversive thoughts. On the other hand, this resource dispels false beliefs about
intrusive thoughts because, tying back to previous resources, they appear unintentionally
and may not actually symbolize what we perceive them as.

Nixon, R.D., Cain, N., Nehmy, T., & Seymour, M. (2009). The influence of thoughts

suppression and cognitive load on intrusions and memory processes following an

analogue stressor. Behavior Therapy, 40, 368 379.

Through the Ironic Process Theory, undesired thoughts and memories come into
consciousness as a result of the rebound effect despite the purposeful elimination of
such thoughts. Wegners work on metacognition influenced an experiment conducted on
80 students, requiring participants to suppress specific ideas in a distressing film.
However, they actually recalled more of the movie and even scenes that were supposed to
be avoided. Thus, psychologists concluded that negative stimuli ultimately
affect cognitive processing and an active association of our intrusions is actually
associated with increased aversions. This is a helpful source in identifying and
explaining factors that contribute towards the inevitability rooted deep within a greater
understanding of suppression, memory bias, and negative appraisals.

Rachman S., & Shafran R. (1999). Cognitive distortions: Thought-action fusion. Clinical

Psychology and Psychotherapy, 6, 80 85.

Rachman and Shafran reveal that there are two types of TAF probability and morality.
Probability TAF is based on the findings that intrusive thoughts likely lead to its
execution whereas morality TAF, one that most individuals experience, indicates that
these daunting ideas reveals ones ethical conviction in carrying them out. By
distinguishing both sides, the article reveals that this phenomenon branches into cognitive
disorders as well as common feelings of guilt. Overall, this article is beneficial in
translating certain cases into layman terms in hopes to separate the medical and common
effects of TAF.

Tripathi R., & Mehrota S. (2010). Reflections on repetitive intrusive thoughts: Diagnostic

dilemmas and beyond. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 36 197

206.
 This article sheds light on a different perspective repetitive intrusive thoughts.
Specifically, this phenomenon focuses on recurrent thoughts about ones concerns,
experiences, and mental processes. This resource differs from the others as it reveals that
these ideas may not even need to be associated with negative features, they can be either
neutral or even positive. The research offers a new take on the complexity of
metacognition, delving into the approaches that psychologists take to analyze such
intangible phenomena. The direct comparison between those common and medically
concerning scenarios indicate the symptoms that could possibly signify when an
individual should seek medical attention because self-diagnosis is not encouraged.

Wegner, D. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 1, 34 52.

The ironic processes of mental control dive deeper into how our buried, unwanted
thoughts come into consciousness despite efforts to suppress them. Wegners findings
show that the brain constantly checks up on personal morals, further making us believe
that we may have internal desires. After reading through Wegners findings, it actually
made me question if an individual should even try to exert any control over our thoughts
and ideas. This article is extremely helpful through the researching process as it unveils
that id-like thoughts escape sub-consciousness due to intentional, and at times
excessive, regulation over internal processes.

Wegner, D. (1997). When the antidote is the poison: Ironic mental control processes.

Psychological Science, 8, 3.
Mental control can be divided into two branches; intentional operating process
(conscious) and ironic monitoring process (unconscious). While the operating process
consistently looks for distractors to keep unwanted ideas at bay, the monitoring process
searches for suppressed thoughts to remind an individual of what to avoid. Unfortunately,
Wegner findings reveal that asserting control over our mental functions actually increases
the accessibility of unwanted ideas. Moreover, when individuals are placed
under intense situations where we want to assert authority over out cognition, the actual
solution is to forgo our sense of control. If aversive thoughts and processes are unhealthy
and impaired, the article suggests the use of paradoxical therapy is a preferred coping
method. The findings in this resource provides insight to an individuals natural impulse
to manipulate their thoughts whilst dispelling the popular belief that control is the
solution to our worries, when it may, in fact, be the stimulus.

Wegner, D. (2009). How to think, say, or do precisely the worst thing for any occasion.

Science, 325(5936), 48-50.

Though individuals attempt at suppressing uncomfortable thoughts, these hypothetical
events occasionally sneak into consciousness when the brain is left vulnerable, not
concentrated on moral distractions. This article would be extremely helpful in contrasting
the difference between those who have the worst thoughts and those who succumb to
 the prowess of their mental processes. Moreover, the author provides key strategies in
controlling our mental processes because even though they dont occur regularly, their
mere presence can be concerning and should be addressed.

Wegner, D., & Erber, R. (1992). The hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 903 912.

As indicated by Wegners white bear experiment, the subjects were ultimately incapable
of sustaining suppression for very long. Thus, the active thought of abstaining from
such thoughts actually increased the probability of conjuring up such ideas in the long
run. Such an act of suppression is only effective for a short time period, often rendering
concern once aversive thoughts occur out of the blue. Within the brain, individuals have
a controlled distractor search that acts as a diversion to enable one to think about
a distracting idea. On the other hand, there is an automatic process that inherently
sidetracks our awareness to focus on an automatic target. However, these alternating
processes unintentionally bring about those exact intrusive thoughts because it makes an
individual sensitive to topics that may pertain to the same topic. This article is a helpful
source in revealing the actual process of metacognition, allowing researchers to fully
comprehend the battle between suppression and resurfacing ideas.