Background and objectives

In imagery rescripting (ImRs), aversive mental images are modified to reduce symptoms in a variety of psychological disorders. However, uniform guidelines on how to optimally implement ImRs do currently not exist. It remains unclear whether therapists should stimulate patients to imagine themselves to actively intervene within the new image, or whether they may imagine helpers to change the situation. We aimed to compare these two variants of ImRs within an analogue experimental setting.

Methods

After having watched an aversive film, one-hundred participants were randomly assigned to active ImRs (ImRs-A), passive ImRs (ImRs-P), imagery rehearsal (IRE), or no-intervention control (NIC). Participants were either instructed to rescript the film by imagining themselves intervening in the new script (ImRs-A) or encouraged to imagine helpers to intervene in the imagined situation (ImRs-P).

Results

Both ImRs increased mastery and elicited less distress than IRE with ImRs-P being experienced as less distressing than ImRs-A. Only ImRs-A led to a stronger increase in positive affect than IRE, whereas groups did not differ with respect to negative affect and self-efficacy. Conditions did not differ regarding the number of film-related intrusive memories.

Limitations

As a convenience sample was investigated, results cannot be generalized to clinical samples.

Conclusion

Even though differences regarding symptomatic outcome could not be detected, ImRs-P was experienced as less distressing than ImRs-A. Results suggest that both ImRs lead to different processes during the intervention than mere exposure. Compared to IRE, ImRs increases mastery with ImRs-A and ImRs-P being equally effective.

中文翻译：

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改进图像重写处理：比较主动与被动方法。

背景和目标

在意象复述 (ImRs) 中，厌恶心理意象被修改以减少各种心理障碍的症状。但是，目前尚不存在关于如何最佳实施 ImR 的统一指南。目前尚不清楚治疗师是否应该刺激患者想象自己积极干预新形象，或者他们是否可以想象帮助者来改变这种情况。我们旨在在模拟实验环境中比较这两种 ImR 变体。

方法

在观看了一部令人厌恶的电影后，一百名参与者被随机分配到主动 ImRs (ImRs-A)、被动 ImRs (ImRs-P)、意象排练 (IRE) 或无干预控制 (NIC)。参与者要么被要求通过想象自己干预新剧本（ImRs-A）来重新编写电影，要么被鼓励想象助手干预想象的情况（ImRs-P）。

结果

与 IRE 相比，两种 ImRs 都提高了掌握程度并引起较少的痛苦，而 ImRs-P 的痛苦程度低于 ImRs-A。与 IRE 相比，只有 ImRs-A 导致积极影响的增加更强，而各组在消极影响和自我效能方面没有差异。关于与电影有关的侵入性记忆的数量，条件没有差异。

限制

由于研究了方便样本，结果不能推广到临床样本。

结论

尽管无法检测到有关症状结果的差异，但 ImRs-P 的痛苦程度不如 ImRs-A。结果表明，两种 ImR 在干预期间导致不同的过程，而不仅仅是暴露。与 IRE 相比，ImRs 提高了掌握程度，ImRs-A 和 ImRs-P 同样有效。