Date of Graduation

8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Jennifer C. Veilleux

Committee Member

Denise Beike

Second Committee Member

Matt Judah

Keywords

emotion beliefs;overcontrol;personality;personality disorders;values

Abstract

Overcontrol is a transdiagnostic personality syndrome underlying difficult-to-treat psychopathology. Current treatments options are limited, and those that do exist are both cost- and time-prohibitive. Brief interventions are one pathway to improving the care of people with overcontrol. This study had two major aims: (1) evaluate a brief values-based intervention to increase distress tolerance in people with overcontrol and (2) examine the correlates of overcontrol using a novel, theoretically derived transdiagnostic measure of overcontrol. Participants (n = 177) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: values clarification only, linking values to emotion, or a control condition. They then completed a modified behavioral distress tolerance task, which asked participants to persist in viewing emotionally evocative images. Contrary to hypotheses, the values-based intervention did not improve behaviorally assessed distress tolerance. However, results indicated a shift in beliefs about the malleability of emotions for participants in the linking values to emotion condition, and across conditions, participants’ judgment, cause, and longevity emotion beliefs shifted to be friendlier and more adaptive over the course of the study. In addition, results revealed that people with greater features of overcontrol evidenced greater state experiential avoidance during the distress tolerance task and, those with overcontrolled rigidity specifically had lower trait distress tolerance. Overall, these findings provide emerging empirical support for recent theoretical work on overcontrol and underscore the need for identifying brief interventions for overcontrol.

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