The effects of a threatening life event on behavior sequences and intrusive thought: A self-disruption explanation

• DOI: 10.1007/bf01173412
• Publication Date: 2005-02-17T17:44:36Z
• Authors: Karen U. Millar; Abraham Tesser; Murray G. Millar
• Keywords: 4. Education; 05 social sciences; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences

A model is presented to explain the occurrence of intrusive thought subsequent to threatening life experiences. The self hypothesized to be partly composed of a number of behavior sequences representing important aspects of the self. Threatening life events disrupt the self by interrupting one or more of these sequences. This interruption is threatening to the self because it creates an incompleteness. To the extent that no instrumental means is available to complete the self, an attempt is made to symbolically complete the self through rumination. Severty-six female freshmen, in their first few weeks of college, provided information about activities performed with a close person and a nonclose person at home, as well as the extent to which these activities were continued at school. Using a modified version of Horowitz's (1976) Impact of Event Scale, a number of hypotheses were tested regarding the occurrence of intrusive thought and emotion. The more activities performed with a close person at home, the more intrusive thought subsequent to behavioral sequence interruption. However, if behavior sequences were continued by instrumental means, less intrusive thought occurred about the close person. Results have implications for lessening the impact of a threatening life experience.