Individuals fail to suppress certain thoughts, especially under conditions that tax cognitive resources. We investigated the impact of modifying psychological reactance pressures on thought suppression attempts. Participants were asked to suppress thoughts of a target item under standard experimental conditions or under conditions designed to lower reactance pressures. In the presence of high cognitive load, weakening associated reactance pressures resulted in greater success at suppression. The results suggest that reducing relevant motivational pressures can facilitate thought suppression, even when an individual experiences cognitive limitation.

INTRODUCTIONAccording to the attentional myopia model, salient cues that serve to inhibit behavior can be especially effective under conditions of limited attention. A small field study tested the implications of this model for smoking reduction.METHODSTwenty-three undergraduate smokers were exposed to a prominent health warning for 2 5-day experimental phases, with phase order counterbalanced across participants. During one phase, participants simply viewed the warning at regular intervals. During the other phase, participants viewed the warning for the same duration but also simultaneously performed a distracting cognitive load task.RESULTSParticipants in the phase that combined a health warning with cognitive load reported smoking significantly fewer cigarettes and taking significantly fewer puffs of smoke as compared to a baseline comparison phase-a reduction in smoking not observed in the absence of cognitive load.CONCLUSIONSSources of attentional distraction may heighten the impact of salient smoking warnings, resulting in significant reductions in smoking.

According to an oft-quoted piece of folk wisdom, if one wants something accomplished, the best person to ask is a busy person. We tested a version of this proposition in two studies. Study 1 exposed participants to a helping request in which cues promoting the relevant behavior were made more salient than those inhibiting it. Study 2 featured a request in which inhibiting cues were made more salient than cues promoting the behavior. In both studies, participants who were "busied" by high cognitive load showed more influence of the dominant behavioral pressure than did participants under minimal load. The results suggest that busy people can respond more to a helping appeal, but only when cues facilitating helping are more salient than those discouraging it.

Research has begun to reveal the malleability of implicit prejudice. One measure of this construct, the race Implicit Association Test (IAT), represents a widely-used tool to assess individuals' positive and negative associations with different racial groups. In two studies, we demonstrate the capacity of salient pressures to alter implicit racial responses. In Study 1, an enhancement of promoting pressures through an explicit instruction to stereotype was sufficient to increase pro-White bias on the IAT. In Study 2, an enhancement of inhibiting pressures through a simple instruction to avoid stereotyping was sufficient to reduce pro-White bias. Taken together, the studies suggest that implicit prejudice is amenable to voluntary control through the use of simple, direct means.

This paper describes the psychometric evaluation of a new measure called the Power of Food Scale (PFS). The PFS assesses the psychological impact of living in food-abundant environments. It measures appetite for, rather than consumption of, palatable foods, at three levels of food proximity (food available, food present, and food tasted). Participants were 466 healthy college students. A confirmatory factor analysis replicated the three-factor solution found previously by Capelleri et al. [Capelleri, J. C., Bushmakin, A. G., Gerber, R. A., Leidy, N. K., Sexton, C., Karlsson, J., et al. (in press). Discovering the structure of the Power of Food Scale (PFS) in obese patients. International Journal of Obesity, 11, A165]. The PFS was found to have adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The PFS and the Restraint Scale were regressed on four self-report measures of overeating. The PFS was independently related to all four whereas the Restraint Scale was independently related to two. Expert ratings of items suggested that the items are an acceptable reflection of the construct that the PFS is designed to capture. The PFS may be useful as a measure of the hedonic impact of food environments replete with highly palatable foods.

The attentional myopia model of behavioral control [Mann and Ward, 2007] was tested in an experiment investigating the relationship between physiological arousal and aggression. Drawing on previous work linking arousal and narrowed attentional focus, the model predicts that arousal will lead to behavior that is relatively disinhibited in situations in which promoting pressures to aggress are highly salient. In situations in which inhibitory pressures are more salient, the model predicts behavior that is relatively restrained. In the experiment, 81 male undergraduates delivered noise-blasts against a provoking confederate while experiencing either high or low levels of physiological arousal and, at the same time, being exposed to cues that served either to promote or inhibit aggression. In addition to supporting the predictions of the model, this experiment provided some of the first evidence for enhanced control of aggression under conditions of heightened physiological arousal. Implications for interventions designed to reduce aggression are discussed.

A number of writers (e. g. HAMILTON 1962) have complained that no exhaustive treatment of the psychiatric problems associated with childbearing has appeared since NARC& published his book “Trait4 de la Folie des Femmes Enceintes” in 1858. HAMILTON describes MARCIYS book as “the only comprehensive book in the world literature on this subject .” If there is a lack of penetrating studies of large materials of partus insufficiencies there are, on the other hand, a number of very good surveys of the literature. The most exhaustive, and at the same time the most up-to-date, is that of HAXILTON (1962), who reviews the most important tendencies in the literature from Hippocrates until our own day. Extensive library work lies behind his book, not least where the older literature is concerned: HAMILTON states that “the bibliographic references which were consulted in the preparation of this book include over three hundred papers published between 1850 and 1900.” So thorough a study as this, especially of the older literature, has not been attempted by the present writer. Nor has he thought it necessary to encumber his account with a too weighty historical review; for a comprehensive bibliography dealing with post-partum psychiatric problems the reader is referred to HAMILTON. A good survey of the literature is also to be found in BOYD (1942), who compares the results of different writers in a number of varying respects. A valuable review is also given by TETLOW (1955). TETLOW lays down certain general lines in respect of aetiology and points out that “it is evident that there are two main trends of opinion in regard to aetiology.” The first of these is that pregnancy, puerperium or the lactat,ion-phase are important events in the natural history of mental breakdown, either through physical factors or secondly from psychological causes. Endocrine disturbances are regarded as a separate aetiological group also. The second main trend of opinion is t.hat pregnancy or puerperium have little or nothing to do with the mental disease, or that a t the very most these conditions act as precipitating events against a background of personality disposition to psychosis, the psycho-