The thought control questionnaire: A measure of individual differences in the control of unwanted thoughts

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy Vol. 32; no. 8; pp. 871 - 878
• Main Authors: Wells, Adrian, Davies, Mark I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.1994; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Anxiety - psychology; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Female; Humans; Hypochondriasis - diagnosis; Hypochondriasis - psychology; Individuality; Internal-External Control; Interview, Psychological; Male; Medical sciences; Mental health; Middle Aged; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology; Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Questionnaires; Repression, Psychology; Reproducibility of Results; Social research; Techniques and methods; Thinking; Human; Autoregulation; Evaluation scale; Suppression; Anxiety disorder; Psychometrics; Cognition; Thought; Test validation; Adult; Self control; Strategy; Diagnosis
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/0005-7967(94)90168-6

Previous research has suggested that unpleasant and unwanted thoughts are a frequent experience in both normal and clinical populations. This paper describes the development and validation of a questionnaire that assesses strategies for controlling such thoughts. Analyses of the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) demonstrated five replicable factors: Distraction; Social Control; Worry; Punishment and Reappraisal. Significant associations were found between the punishment and worry subscales of the TCQ and various measures of emotional vulnerability and perceptions of impaired control over cognition. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the literature on thought suppression, worry and mental self-regulation.