White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI)

"Authors: Daniel M. Wegner & Sophia Zanakos

The WBSI is a 15-item questionnaire that is designed to measure thought suppression. Chronic thoughts suppression is a variable that is related to obsessive thinking and negative affect associated with depression and anxiety. The WBSI can help to identify individuals who are more prone to develop chronic thought suppression as well as individuals who express wishing they were not depressed, but are in fact depressed. The measure can also be used by practitioners to evaluate changer over time.

Scoring: The scoring of the WBSI is based on a 5 point scale from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). The total score is obtained by summing up the responses that are provided by respondents. The total score can range from 15 to 75. Higher scores on the WBSI indicate greater tendencies to suppress thoughts.

Reliability: The WBSI has very good internal consistency, with alphas ranging from .87 to .89. The WBSI has also been found to have good stability with a 1 week test-retest correlation of .92, and a 3 week to 3 month test-retest correlation of .69.

Validity: Demonstrates excellent convergent validity with significant correlations between the WBSI and several measures including Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). It has also been found that the WBSI correlates negatively with repression, thus suggesting that the WBSI measures a characteristic that is different to traditional concepts of repression.

Reference: Wegner, D. M. & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615-640."

Information quoted from Ciarrochi, J. & Bilich, L. (2006). Process measures of potential relevance to ACT. Unpublished manuscript, University of Wollongong, Australia.

admin February 16, 2008 - 7:16pm

WBSI - Chinese

Rodriguez, M. A., Jia, K., & Qian, M.-y. (2012). White Bear Suppression Inventory: Structure, reliability and validity of the Chinese version. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20(2), 143–147.

Community July 16, 2021 - 10:28am

WBSI - Dutch

Manon J.B. Vincken, Cor Meesters, Iris M. Engelhard, Erik Schouten (2012). Psychometric qualities of the White Bear Suppression Inventory in a Dutch sample of children and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(3), 301-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.023

Community July 16, 2021 - 10:25am

WBSI - Finnish

Lappalainen, P., Keinonen, K., Pakkala, I., Lappalainen, R., & Nikander, R. (2021). The role of thought suppression and psychological inflexibility in older family caregivers’ psychological symptoms and quality of life. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 20, 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.04.005

Community August 14, 2021 - 1:54am

WBSI - German Version

WBSI - Deutsche Version: https://contextualscience.org/wbsi_deutsche_version

Community June 8, 2021 - 9:04pm

WBSI - Hungarian

András, H. (2012) KOGNITÍV SÉRÜLÉS ÉS TÜNETI MINTÁZAT KÉNYSZERBETEGSÉGBEN. Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem, Dissertation. The WBSI Hungarian translation is in Figure 3.

Community August 14, 2021 - 12:13am

WBSI - Japanese

(2006) 日本語版 White Bear Suppression Inventory 作成の試み. The Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Volume 70, The 70th Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Session ID 2EV114, Pages 2EV114. https://doi.org/10.4992/pacjpa.70.0_2EV114

Community July 30, 2021 - 9:00pm

WBSI - Polish

References:

1. Baran L., Hyla M., Kleszcz B. (2019). Elastyczność psychologiczna. Polska adaptacja narzędzi dla praktyków i badaczy. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Read the book online at www.wydawnictwo.us.edu.pl/node/21733
See attachments for male and female versions of the WBSI.

2. Cichoń, E., Szczepanowski, R., & Niemiec, T. (2020). Polish version of the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) by Wegner and Zanakos: factor analysis and reliability. Skala tłumienia myśli – polska wersja kwestionariusza WBSI (White Bear Suppression Inventory) Wegnera i Zanakos: analiza czynnikowa i rzetelność skali. Psychiatria polska, 54(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.12740/PP/93493

Community June 14, 2021 - 12:12am

WBSI - Spanish Validation

Fernandez-Berrocal, P., Extremera, N., & Ramos, N. (2004). Validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the White Bear Suppression Inventory. Psychological reports, 94(3 Pt 1), 782–784. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.94.3.782-784

Community June 14, 2021 - 12:44am

WBSI - Swedish

Sylvan, A., & Lindell, J. (2020). Kom ihåg att glömma: Adaptiv glömska, oro, ruminering & påträngande tankar. Örebro University, Dissertation. The WBSI Swedish translation is in the Appendix (Bilaga A: Översättning av White Bear Suppression Inventory). Retrieved from: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1529023&dswid=-328

Community August 11, 2021 - 11:23pm

WBSI Italian

White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI)

Wegner, D. M. & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615-640."

Versione Italiana (1.0) a cura di Lijoi, E., Violini, P., Rossi, E., Melchiorri, E., Ristè, N., (2014) AISCC, Gruppo Ricerca ACT.

Referenza bibliografica: Ristè, N., Violini, P., Melchiorri, E., Lijoi, E.,Rossi, E., Panzera, A., (2014). Italian version of the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI): A preliminary study. Poster presented at ACBS World Conference 12 Poster Session - Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - June 17-22, 2014

Per informazioni: segreteria@aiscc.it – www.aiscc.it

AISCC - ACT Re… November 20, 2015 - 5:59pm

WBSI in Portuguese

Talask, G. et.al (2018). White Bear Suppression Inventory: translation and cross-cultural adaptation to Brazilian Portuguese. Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2017-0082

Community June 14, 2021 - 12:10am

WBSI in Serbian

Zdenka Novović, et al (2014) WHITE BEAR SUPPRESSION INVENTORY: VALIDATION OF A SERBIAN TRANSLATION. Primenjena psihologija, Vol 7 No 3-1. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2014.3-1.325-345

Community June 14, 2021 - 12:15am

WBSI in Turkish

Yücel Ağargün, M., Beşiroğlu, L., Kemal Kiran, U., Kara, H., & Akil Ozer, O. (2004). Beyaz Ayi Supresyon Envanteri'nin Geçerlik ve Güvenilirliğine Ilişkin Bir On Calişma [The reliability and validity of the White Bear Suppression Inventory]. Turk psikiyatri dergisi, 15(4), 282–290. http://www.turkpsikiyatri.com/default.aspx?modul=ingilizceOzet&gFPrkMakale=484
Translation is at the end of the article.

Community June 14, 2021 - 12:40am