Cognitive Challenge Study

Statement of the Problem:

Distress tolerance , the length of time a person will persist during times of stress (Simons, [In Press]), is a construct that has recently emerged in the psychopathology literature (e.g. Brown, 2002; Linehan, 1996; Lejuez, 2004; Quinn, Brandon , & Copeland, 1996). In these studies, support has been found for the theory that higher levels of distress tolerance are associated with improved psychological functioning and reduced levels of psychopathology. If that is the case, interventions that increase an individual's distress tolerance may have the potential to improve psychological functioning.

A growing body of evidence suggests that low levels of distress tolerance may be a risk factor for the development of a wide range of psychological disorders, including borderline personality disorder (Linehan, 1998), depression (Brown, 2001), addictive behaviors (Lejuez, 2004), and anxiety disorders (Telch, Cougle, & Horowitz, in preparation). Low levels of distress tolerance are thought to be associated with avoidant patterns of emotion and cognition, which are supposed to contribute to a range of mental disorders (Hayes, Wilson, Follette, 1996).

Distress tolerance is also thought to be involved in addictive behavior. Cooper, Russell, Skinner, Frone, and Mudar (1992) found that between 10% and 25% of adults who consume alcohol reported doing so in part to deal with negative affect. Simons (in press) found converging evidence that consistent use of alcohol to reduce negative affect may suggest that these individuals have impaired distress tolerance, and Carpenter & Hasin (1999) found evidence of a strong positive association between addiction and a tendency to feel overwhelmed by distressing emotions.

Since distress tolerance has been associated with these serious negative mental health outcomes, increasing understanding of this construct is important.

Specific Aims:

The current experiment will compare the effects of three different brief interventions upon distress tolerance, as measured by persistence during a psychologically frustrating task. The distress tolerance augmentation interventions to be compared are 1) a brief video-delivered intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), 2) a brief video-delivered Threat Focus intervention, and 3) pulsed audiophotic stimulation. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive one of these interventions, followed by a frustrating computer-based task. It is hypothesized that 1) participants who score low on self-report measures of distress tolerance will show significantly shorter participation times on the frustrating task than will individuals with high self-report distress tolerance scores 2) individuals receiving the ACT intervention will show a greater increase in task persistence than the individuals receiving the other two interventions.

Design: 5 Arm design with three intervention, one placebo and one waitlist conditions. Eligible participants will complete a baseline assessment consisting of a battery of 8 self-report questionnaires. Participants will then be randomized to one of five 15-min. intervention conditions: (a) ACT brief intervention; (b) Threat Focus intervention; (c) Awareness only brief intervention (d) pulsed audio-photic stimulation session (APS), or (e) a distracting video no treatment. Participants will then complete a 15-min PASAT-C task which has been shown to induce high levels of frustration.

Eligibility Criteria: 18 – 25 years old and currently enrolled in PSY 301 at UT Austin

Project Coordinator/Contact Person: Mary Elizabeth Clark

Contact Phone number: (512) 471-3722

Contact Email:melizclark@mail.utexas.edu