WBSI
White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI)
The WBSI is a self-report questionnaire designed to measure an individual's tendency to deliberately suppress unwanted thoughts. It is frequently used to assess the cognitive processes related to thought suppression, which may be involved in anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Its name refers to Daniel Wegner's famous experiment in which participants, asked not to think about a white bear, paradoxically ended up thinking about it more.
- Number of questions
- 15 questions
- Estimated duration
- 5 minutes
- Language
- English
- Original name
- White Bear Suppression Inventory
- Target audience
- Adults
- Authors
- Daniel M. Wegner, David R. Schneider, Samuel R. Carter, Tonya White (1987)
Scoring & interpretation
Responses are given on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree". The scores of the 15 items are summed to give a total score. A high score indicates a stronger tendency toward thought suppression. Interpretation takes into account the total score and, sometimes, the distribution of scores across subdimensions.
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