TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………………….. vi
LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………….. ix
LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………………… xiii
CHAPTER
1. SPECIFIC AIMS ………………………………………………………………… 1
Overarching Goals and Hypotheses ………………………………… 3
Correlational Aims ……………………………………………………….. 3
Experimental Aims ………………………………………………………. 4
2. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE ………………………………. 5
Emotion Regulation ……………………………………………………… 5
Models of Emotion Regulation …………………………………. 5
Emotion Regulation and Anxiety Disorders ……………….. 7
Experiential Avoidance and Acceptance ……………………. 8
Experiential Avoidance, Acceptance, and
Emotion Regulation ………………………………………………… 10
Review of Experimental Studies of Experiential Avoidance and
Acceptance …………………………………………………………….. 13
Assessment of Recovery ………………………………………….. 16
Assessment of Attention and Disengagement……………… 17
The Current Study ………………………………………………………… 18
3. METHODS ………………………………………………………………………… 20
Broad Procedural Overview …………………………………………… 20
Recruitment …………………………………………………………………. 21
Participants………………………………………………………………….. 22
Measures and Assessment……………………………………………… 23
Prescreening Measures…………………………………………….. 23
Emotional Interference Task and State Measures ………… 26
Procedures …………………………………………………………………… 30
Manipulation Check ………………………………………………… 32
Behavioral Assessment ……………………………………………. 32
Restates Hypotheses……………………………………………………… 32
4. RESULTS ………………………………………………………………………….. 34
Equivalence of Conditions on Key Variables …………………… 35
Manipulation Check ……………………………………………………… 36
Correlational Results…………………………………………………….. 37
Experimental Results ……………………………………………………. 40
CHAPTER
9. DISCUSSION …………………………………………………………………… 47
Limitations ………………………………………………………………….. 50
Interpretations and Implications of Findings ……………………. 52
Correlational Interpretations and Implications …………………. 52
Experimental Interpretations and Implications …………………. 55
APPENDIX
A. EMOTION REGULATION INSTRUCTIONS………………………. 59
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………… 65