Experiential Avoidance and Attention to ...

Experiential avoidance (EA) is a maladaptive coping strategy that involves avoiding unwanted internal experiences (i.e., thoughts, emotions, and physiological sensations). Although a high level of EA is associated with increased psychological distress and several forms of psychopathology, there is a lack of research on cognitive factors involved in EA. To examine whether individuals high in EA may be more sensitive to noticing negative emotional stimuli, participants with either high (n = 22) or low (n = 21) levels of EA engaged in an Emotional Stroop Task containing negative emotional, positive emotional, and neutral words. Negative and positive emotional words were similar in arousal levels. The low EA group had significantly delayed response times for negative compared to positive emotional words. In contrast, the high EA group exhibited longer response times for both negative and positive emotional words, compared to neutral words. The high EA group also had significantly greater response times on positive words compared to the low EA group. These results suggest that individuals high in EA may demonstrate a bias toward attending to emotionally arousal stimuli in general, not just to negative stimuli.