Irrational beliefs and psychosomatic disorders

ABSTRACT:One hundred and thirty-three employees (58 males, 75 females) of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DVAMC), Coatesville, PA anonymously volunteered data on a Demographic Survey, The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Derogatis), and The Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT, Jones). A canonical correlation analysis was used to investigate associations between general patterns of beliefs and symptomatology. Two significant pairs of variates were revealed. The first pair provided associations between Demand for Approval, High Self-Expectations, Frustration Reactive, Anxious Overconcern, and Perfectionism and psychological symptomatology. The second pair provided associations between Demand for Approval, Blame Proneness, Frustration Reactive, and Emotional Irresponsibility and somatic symptoms. A MANOVA was used to assess for gender differences. There was no significant general gender effect. However, univariate analyses revealed significant effects for seven BSI variables. This study supported the belief that one's pattern of thinking is related to one's pattern of symptomatology. This has implications for use in health psychology and behavioral medicine.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

An investigation of the relationship between general belief patterns and well-being

Howlett

1994

“…2 The SYM is scored by summing the frequency ratings. Its usefulness in research has been demonstrated (Woods, 1987;Woods & Lyons, 1990). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…You believe that things should not go wrong, and that it is awful or terrible when they do. Baisden, 1977;Lane, Bessai, & Bard, 1977;Lohr & Bonge, 1982;Martin, Dolliver, & Irwin, 1977;Secrist, 1986;Woods, 1983Woods, , 1984Woods, , 1987Woods, , 1991Woods & Coggin, 1985;Woods & Lyons, 1990;Woods & Muller, 1988. ) Procedure All materials were handed out as a complete package during a regular class meeting.…”

Section: Fr Frustration Reactivementioning

confidence: 95%

Cognitive variables related to suicidal contemplation in adolescents with implications for long-range prevention

Woods

Silverman

Gentilini

et al. 1991

Self Cite

“…They were (1) the Jones Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) (Jones, 1968/69), (2) the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory -Trait Scale (STAI) (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983), (3) the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979, pp. 398-399), (4) the Hopelessness Scale (HS) (Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974), (5) the Anger Expression Scale, which measures Suppressed Anger (AgI) and Expressed Anger (AGO) (Spielberger, Johnson, Russell, Crane, Jacobs, & Worden, 1984), (6) the Physical Symptoms Checklist (SYM) (Woods, 1987;Woods & Lyons, 1990;Woods et al, 1991), and (7) the Suicide Probability Scale (SPS), which contains four subscales: Hopelessness (HP), Suicide Ideation (SI), Negative Self-evaluation (NS), and Hostility (HT) (Cull & Gill, 1982).…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The author of this paper has systematically used this instrument since the late 1970's with over 2,000 clients, students, workshop participants, and people in RET training and has reported its usefulness in research on a variety of problems including headaches and other psychosomatic disorders, Type A Behavior, anxiety, anger, and suicidal contemplation (Woods, 1984(Woods, , 1987Woods & Coggin, 1985;Woods & Lyons, 1990;Woods & Muller, 1988;Woods, Silverman, Gentilini, Cunningham, & Grieger, 1991), as well as its value in therapy (Woods, 1991).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A study of ?Belief? and ?Non-belief? items from the jones irrational beliefs test with implications for the theory of RET

Woods

1992

Self Cite

Evidence supporting the fundamental position of RationalEmotive Therapy (RET) that dysfunctional emotions and behaviors are heavily influenced by irrational beliefs has been questioned due to the fact that many measures of beliefs contain items that actually refer to emotions and behaviors. In this study individual items on the Jones Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) (Jones, 1968/69) were rated by a panel of experts in RET as to whether they referred to beliefs, behaviors, emotions, or were ambiguous. Then "Belief" items and "Non-belief" items from the responses of 368 participants were extracted and scored separately. The "Non-belief" scores, based on items mostly referring to emotions and behaviors, were strongly related to measures of distress, as would be expected. But scores based on items unequivocally referring to beliefs were also significantly related to measures of emotional distress, psychosomatic symptoms, and suicidal contemplation. These findings are interpreted as clear support for RET's position on the relationship between irrational beliefs (B's) and dysfunctional emotions and behaviors (C's).