1. Diana Bast Supervisor: Prof. Barnes-Holmes
Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness
Diana Bast
Supervisor: Prof. Barnes-Holmes

2. Objective
To verify if priming participants to contact their personal assessments of failures or successes would influence the IRAP performances in some way
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

3. 38 students positive priming group (PPG)
Method
Participants
38 students positive priming group (PPG)
43 students negative priming group (NPG)
Instruments
Implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP)
Scale derived from the IRAP
Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)
Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, (DASS)
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

4. Self-Forgiveness IRAP
Two different IRAPs one targeting feelings and another targeting outcomes related to the ‘minor’ failures and successes of participants.
The Feelings IRAP juxtaposed positive and negative feelings regarding failures and successes, while the Outcomes IRAP juxtaposed positive and negative outcomes from failures and successes
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

5. Labels Targets IRAP FEELINGS When I fail When I succeed I feel bad
I feel Good
I feel Guilty
I feel Strong
I feel Stupid
I feel Energetic
I feel Useless
I feel Positive
I feel Frustrated
I feel Calm
I feel Angry
I feel Peaceful
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

6. Labels Targets IRAP OUTCOMES Failing Succeeding Wastes my time
Saves me time
Undermines my motivation
Keeps me motivated
Has negative consequences
Has positive consequences
Makes me look bad
Makes me look good
Makes me less productive
Makes more productive
Makes me look stupid
Makes me look intelligent
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

7. IRAP Feelings Practice block: 80% and 2000 ms
Test block: 75% and 2000 ms
When I fail
I feel guilty
True False
When I succeed
I feel good
True False
True False
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Pos bias
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Neg Bias
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

8. Outcomes IRAP Practice block: 80% and 2000 ms
Test block: 75% and 2000 ms
Failing
Wastes my time
True False
Succeeding
Saves me time
True False
True False
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Pos bias
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Neg Bias
Neg Bias
Pos bias
Bast, D., Barnes-Holmes, D. (in press). Priming Thoughts of Failing versus Succeeding and Performance on the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Self-Forgiveness. The Psychological Record.

10. Results
The priming condition affect Outcomes-IRAP but not performance on the Feelings-IRAP
The fact that the priming variable impacted on one IRAP but not the other indicates that the effects were specific to the targeted domain (i.e., outcomes versus feelings), rather than constituting a general influence on self-forgiveness IRAP performances per se.

11. Negative Priming Group
Perhaps asking participants to think about previous failures may have evoked events from the past where failure did not lead to positive outcomes (e.g., failing to get a particular job led to getting another better job in the future)
The large positive bias observed for the Success-Positive trial-type perhaps success is valued more highly in the context of having recently thought about failure.

12. Explicit measures
Results that were relatively consistent across the two priming conditions non-significant difference across the two priming conditions, with exception of the Fail-Negative scale for the Outcomes measure.
Exposure to positive relative to negative priming led participants to rate failing more negatively and rate succeeding less positively

13. Having recently thought about previous successes in one’s life, failure may be perceived to be more negative, but successes less positive due to a contrast effect
Similarly, thinking about failures may cause one to respond to failure less negatively and success more positively due to the contrast effect

14. Self-Compassion Scale
Average overall self-compassion scores 3.0 on the 1-5 scale
PP group, M = 3.39, SD = .87;
NBT group, M = 2.80, SD = .79.
An independent t-test indicated that the difference
between the two priming conditions was significant, t =
3.08, p = suggesting that positive relative to
negative priming increased levels of self-compassion.

15. DASS
The mean overall score for the DASS between the two groups was similar,
PPG: (SD = 25.58)
NPG: (SD = )
An independent t-test indicated no significant difference between the two priming conditions

16. Analogous of the IRAP and IRAP
Lack of correlations among the analogous of the IRAPs and the IRAPs
The IRAPs were tapping into responses towards succeeding and failing that are not captured readily with explicit self-report measures of the responses targeted by the IRAPs

17. The Feelings-IRAP and SCS
Of the 8 correlations
Group
Trial-type
Subscale r p
PPG
Fail-Positive Feelings IRAP
Self-Compassion Average
-.316
.053
Lower level of self-compassion predicted a bias towards confirming that failing produces positive feelings (but only after completing a positive priming exercise).
After having been encouraged to feel positive towards the self
Avoidance of negative feelings ?

18. The Feelings-IRAP and DASS
Of 16 correlations for PPG (4 trial-types with 4 DASS scores)
Group
Trial-type
Subscale r p PP
Failure-Negative Feelings
Anxiety
.31
<.06 “
Stress .4
<.01
DASS overall
.32
.04
Of the 16 correlations for the NPG none of the correlations were significant (rs < .26, ps > .9).
The priming variable thus appeared to impact upon the relationship between the Feelings IRAP and the explicit measure of psychopathology.

19. When participants with higher levels of stress, anxiety and overall psychopathology had just been asked to think about previous successes in their lives they appeared less willing to confirm that failing leads to negative feelings
Experiential Avoidance?

20. Outcomes-IRAP and explicit measures
The 4 D-IRAP scores were entered into a correlation matrix with the total and subscale scores of the three explicit measures (the SCS, DASS and the Explicit Outcomes-Scale)
None of the 48 correlations across the explicit measures proved to be significant

21. Conclusion
The IRAPs designed to target self-forgiveness may predict self-reported levels of psychopathology
The fact that the current research yielded correlations with established psychometric instruments, for self-compassion and psychopathology, does indicate that the IRAPs may be capturing potentially important response biases.
The correlations obtained in the current research only emerged for a specific priming condition and with the Feelings-IRAP

22. Thank you
Contact:
Diana Bast: