Ian Tyndall

University of Chichester · Department of Psychology

Objectives: The present study aimed at assessing psychological flexibility, the core construct of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model, in the context of chronic illness. More specifically, the present study aimed at validating the 18-item Portuguese CompACT measure of psychological flexibility in a chronic illness sample (total n = 419; 83....

Perceived ostracism (e.g., feeling ignored or excluded) is a painful and distressing experience. However, little empirical research has investigated the types (profiles) of people more likely to perceive ostracism. The present study (N = 395) used latent class analysis to (a) identify potential classes based on the big five personality traits (i.e....

Despite the relevance of social exclusion and economic inequality for homelessness, empirical studies investigating how these issues relate to homeless people's psychological well-being are scarce. We aimed to fill this gap by conducting two quasi-experimental studies on homeless and non-homeless groups. The first study (N = 200) showed that homele...

‘It was in this stuck-ness that something changed’ Alison Woodward with a personal study of post-traumatic growth, which Ian Tyndall and Terence Sexton then examine through the lenses of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Transpersonal Psychology

Ostracism is known to lead to negative psychological outcomes; however, little is known as to how ostracism may be a predictor of paranoid thoughts. The present paper examined the relationship between perceived ostracism and paranoid thoughts (social reference, persecution) by focusing on the potential moderating roles of psychological flexibility...

Most psychological research on social exclusion mainly focused on maximizing internal validity (e.g., controlling for confounding variables). However, maximizing external validity to produce generalizable knowledge about real-world experiences becomes increasingly essential. In the present study (N=89), we adopted an ecological momentary assessment...

Cognitive defusion is among the main components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a contextual behavioral approach to psychotherapy. Defusion serves as a middle-level term, and, as such, may be useful for applying and disseminating behavior science, despite its lower precision. However, some authors argue that for middle-level terms in ps...

Objective This scoping review aims to synthesize existing literature on good practice in sexual health interventions for adults over 45 years and in vulnerable groups. Methods Using PRISMA-ScR guidelines, search terms focused on sexual health, good practice, and vulnerable groups, in over-45s. Results Of the nine studies that met the inclusion cr...

An 18-item Portuguese-language version of the CompACT scale has recently been proposed for the Portuguese population. This study aims at conducting the first Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Portuguese CompACT in participants from two different samples (community adults and women in the post-partum period; total N = 1090). Given that the CompACT...

In recent years, small-scale studies have suggested that we may be able to substantially strengthen children's general cognitive abilities and intelligence quotient (IQ) scores using a relational operant skills training program (SMART). Only one of these studies to date has included an active Control Condition, and that study reported the smallest...

For those with feelings of social anxiety, university can present unique challenges. Socially anxious students can face functional impairments such as interpersonal and academic deficits, as well as social maladjustment due to a shift in their social networks. Despite this, there is surprisingly little research exploring their experiences at univer...

Online interventions promoted to enhance cognitive ability hold great appeal for their potential positive impact in social, employment, and educational domains. Cognitive training programs have, thus far, not been shown to influence performance on tests of general cognitive aptitude. Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training (SMART) i...

Music is a pervasive cultural practice that has been present in ancient civilizations through to the present, yet its evolutionary significance has not been unequivocally determined. One position suggests that evolution favored music-related behaviors because such behaviors were linked to sexual selection and reproduction. A more recent perspective...

Values-affirmation interventions have demonstrated efficacy in increasing approach behavior in the context of potential threat. In other words, writing about values seems associated with changes to the functions of previously aversive events. Evaluative conditioning and derived relational responding have been offered as possible mechanisms by which...

Negative stereotypes about female intellectual abilities occur in children as young as 6-years-old and can shape a child's educational path and career choice, particularly in relation to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The current study (N = 40) explored pre-existing gender stereotypes in a purposeful sample of 6 to 8-year-old whi...

Chronic health conditions are increasing at an alarming rate world-wide, and many could be prevented if people were to engage in specific lifestyle behaviors. Intervening on lifestyle behaviors is challenging due to the fact that the consequences associated with unhealthy behaviors are temporally distant and probabilistic, and the aversive function...

Research suggests that training relational operant patterns of behavior can lead to increases in general cognitive ability and educational outcomes. Most studies to date have been under-powered and included proxy measures of educational attainment. We attempted to extend previous findings with increased experimental control in younger children (age...

Adaptability is purported to be a key mental resource and refers to an individual's cognitive, behavioral, and emotional regulation (or adjustment) in situations of change, novelty, and uncertainty. Psychological flexibility refers to a person's capacity to allow experience and acceptance of negative thoughts and feelings with mindful awareness gui...

Relational Frame Theory (RFT), a contemporary behavioral account of language and cognition, has been offered as an explanatory model of the development and maintenance of body image disturbance. RFT posits derived relational responding (DRR) as a process through which the impact of an event on behavior changes absent direct contingency learning, an...

Relational reasoning broadly refers to how we assign symbolic meaning to stimuli based on their relationship to other stimuli. For example, the term and concept “tall” can only carry meaning relative to “short”. Charles Spearman referred to g as a generic factor of “cognition of relations” (1927, p.165) suggesting that relational reasoning may be c...

The wider societal attitudes held towards mothers’ breastfeeding in public seem to impact infant feeding choices. The present study employed an online (N = 396) experimental pre-test post-test design set to examine whether a mere exposure effect of briefly viewing and rating the valence of four different images of public breastfeeding (i.e., mother...

Objectives: The present study examined the preliminary efficacy of an ultra-brief cognitive defusion intervention, compared to a positive self-affirmation intervention, on moderate subclinical Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA). Method: Sixty-three participants (M=25.70 yrs, SD=9.48) first completed a questionnaire assessing PSA symptomology and were th...

The present paper examined whether experiential avoidance (EA) was a potential moderator of recovery from the short-term effects of ostracism. Forty University students completed a measure of EA and were either included or excluded in an online-ball tossing game (Cyberball). Participants then reported need-satisfaction immediately following the gam...

Previous research suggests that longer‐term perceived ostracism is related to poor sleep quality. In this study, we investigated the mediating effect of cognitive arousal on the perceived ostracism‐sleep quality relationship. We also investigated whether experiential avoidance was a moderator of the cognitive arousal‐sleep quality relationship. Par...

Research suggests that training relational operant patterns of behavior can lead to increases in general cognitive ability and educational outcomes. Most studies to date have been under-powered and included proxy measures of educational attainment. We attempted to extend previous findings with increased experimental control in younger children (age...

A core overarching aim of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) research on language and cognition is the prediction and influence of human behavior with precision, scope, and depth. However, the conceptualization and delineation of empirical investigations of higher-order language and cognition from a relational framing theoretical standpoint is a challen...

A core overarching aim of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) research on language and cognition is the prediction and influence of human behavior with precision, scope, and depth. However, the conceptualization and delineation of empirical investigations of higher-order language and cognition from a relational framing theoretical standpoint is a challen...

The Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ) was originally validated against measures of psychological flexibility and psychological distress. However, measures which have substantial conceptual overlap with the GPQ (e.g., the Need to Belong Scale [NTBS], Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale [BFNE]) were not examined. The present study seeks to...

A burgeoning research stream supports the efficacy of a novel behavior-analytic intervention, known as SMART training, in raising general intelligence by training a set of crucial cognitive skills, referred to as relational skills. A sample of Irish secondary school students (n = 26) was divided into two IQ matched groups, with the experimental gro...

There exists uncertainty for clinicians over how the separate sub-component processes of psychological flexibility, a core construct of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model, interact and influence distress experienced. The present study (N = 567) employed latent class analysis to (i) identify potential classes (i.e., subgroups) of psychologi...

Psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance are key constructs in the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model of behavior change. Wolgast (2014) questioned the construct validity of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), the most used self-report instrument to assess the efficacy of ACT interventions. Wolgast suggeste...

The Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) has shown recent evidence as an effective tool for the quantification of stimulus relatedness. The current study assessed the potential of the FAST in measuring the effects of the presentation of positively or negatively valenced messages on relatedness between stimulus relations with regard to safe-sex be...

The Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) has shown recent evidence as an effective tool for the quantification of stimulus relatedness. The current study assessed the potential of the FAST in measuring the effects of the presentation of positively- or negatively valenced messages on relatedness between stimulus relations with regard to safe sex b...

Previous research suggests that training relational operant responding using the SMART (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training) program over several months can result in improved performance on cognitive intelligence tests. This study aimed to investigate whether engaging in a 3-week relational training program would improve (i) sc...

Implicit measures have been hypothesized to allow researchers to ascertain the existence and strength of relations between stimuli, often in the context of research on attitudes. However, little controlled behavioral research has focused on whether stimulus relations, and the degree of relatedness within such relations, are indexed by implicit meas...

Dot-Probe or Visual Probe Tasks (VPTs) are used extensively to measure attentional biases. A novel variant termed the cued VPT (cVPT) was developed to focus on the anticipatory component of attentional bias. The current study aimed to establish an anticipatory attentional bias to threat using the cVPT and compare its split-half reliability with a t...

The present study examined whether increasing visual perceptual load differentially affected both Socially Meaningful and Non-socially Meaningful auditory stimulus awareness in neurotypical (NT, n = 59) adults and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, n = 57) adults. On a target trial, an unexpected critical auditory stimulus (CAS), either a Non-socially...

Psychological inflexibility has been found to moderate psychological distress following perceived ostracism. Two component processes of psychological inflexibility, experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, are considered key in exacerbating general emotional distress. The present study (n = 286) examined whether both experiential avoidance and...

Dot‐probe or visual probe tasks (VPTs) are used extensively to measure attentional biases. A novel variant termed the cued VPT (cVPT) was developed to focus on the anticipatory component of attentional bias. This study aimed to establish an anticipatory attentional bias to threat using the cVPT and compare its split‐half reliability with a typical...

The present paper examined the relationship between everyday experiences of ostracism and psychological distress by focusing on the potential moderating role of psychological flexibility. As expected, data from a two-wave survey of 299 internet users (Study 1) indicated that perceived ostracism was positively related to psychological distress. Howe...

Previous research has suggested that training relational operants over several months can result in improved performance on cognitive intelligence tests. Most of this research so far neglects to include response latencies as an outcome measure. However, behaviours considered ‘intelligent’ should be examined within a temporal context. The aims of th...

Objective: The word repetition technique is used in acceptance and commitment therapy as a method of facilitating cognitive defusion from distressing thoughts. The present study conducted a randomised trial to manipulate the rate of word repetition and evaluate its impact on the efficacy of cognitive defusion. Method: Thirty-two participants repeat...

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) proposes that the learned ability to derive arbitrary stimulus relations (i.e., derived relational responding) underlies the complexity and generativity of language and cognition. One research program (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training; SMART) has provided evidence that training relational skills...

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) proposes that the learned ability to derive arbitrary stimulus relations (i.e., derived relational responding; DRR) underlies the complexity and generativity of language and cognition. One research program (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training; SMART) has provided evidence that training DRR skills re...

Introduction Previous research has demonstrated that sleep significantly enhances the emergence of 2- but not 1-node derived relations following a 12-hour period. Objective The present study investigated whether a highly truncated relaxation intervention in the form of an 11-minute progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) exercise would effect a similar...

Ostracism is a painful event, which may lead to prolonged psychological distress. However, little is known about the mechanisms which may help people recover from such events. This study explored how people who are not chronically ostracised describe processing and coping with ostracism. Using a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews w...

Previous studies have identified potential sources of competing stimulus control in tests for stimulus equivalence. The present experiment employed the Nintendo Wii remote (Wiimote®) to investigate whether such competition would affect suboperant action dynamics (e.g., topographies of equivalence responses). Following one-to-many training on condit...

Subjects completed a baseline stimulus matching procedure designed to pro-duce two symmetrical stimulus relations; A1–B1 and A2–B2. Using A1, B1, and two novel stimuli, subjects were then trained to produce a common key-press response for two stimuli and a second key-press response for two fur-ther stimuli across two blocks of response training. Du...

The present experiment examined the effects of respondently conditioned emotional functions on the formation of stimulus equivalence relations. Fifty-seven participants were exposed to a stimulus-pairing procedure that paired six nonsense syllables with aversive images, and a further six stimuli with neutral images. A second phase established diffe...

Fifty participants were exposed to a simple discrimination-training procedure during which six S+ functions were established for six arbitrary stimuli, and S- functions were established for a further six stimuli. Following this training, each participant was exposed to one of five conditions. In the S+ condition, participants were exposed to a stim...