In an Absolute State: Elevated Use of Absolutist Words Is a Marker Specific to Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation
In an Absolute State: Elevated Use of Absolutist Words Is a Marker Specific to Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation
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DOI：
10.1177/2167702617747074
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发表时间：
2018-07-01
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Johnstone, Tom
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Al-Mosaiwi, Mohammed;Johnstone, Tom
绝对主义思维被大多数焦虑和抑郁的认知疗法认为是一种认知扭曲。然而，很少有经验证据表明其普遍性或特异性。在三项研究中，我们使用语言调查和字数统计软件对63个互联网论坛（超过6,400名成员）进行了文本分析，以检查语言层面的绝对主义。我们预测并发现焦虑、抑郁和自杀意念论坛比对照论坛包含更多的绝对主义词汇（ds > 3.14）。自杀意念论坛也比焦虑和抑郁论坛包含更多的绝对主义词汇（ds > 1.71）。我们发现，这些差异更多地反映了绝对主义思维，而不是心理困扰。有趣的是，绝对主义词汇比消极情绪词汇更忠实地追踪情感障碍论坛的严重程度。最后，我们发现抑郁症康复论坛中绝对主义词汇的水平有所提高。这表明，绝对主义思维可能是一个脆弱的因素。
Absolutist thinking is considered a cognitive distortion by most cognitive therapies for anxiety and depression. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of its prevalence or specificity. Across three studies, we conducted a text analysis of 63 Internet forums (over 6,400 members) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software to examine absolutism at the linguistic level. We predicted and found that anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation forums contained more absolutist words than control forums (ds > 3.14). Suicidal ideation forums also contained more absolutist words than anxiety and depression forums (ds > 1.71). We show that these differences are more reflective of absolutist thinking than psychological distress. It is interesting that absolutist words tracked the severity of affective disorder forums more faithfully than negative emotion words. Finally, we found elevated levels of absolutist words in depression recovery forums. This suggests that absolutist thinking may be a vulnerability factor.