THE STRUCTURE OF INHIBITION

Inhibition is emerging as a central construct in both the literature on personality and health and the literature on the structure of personality. This study explored the structure of several questionnaire measures of inhibition by subjecting data from a number of scales to exploratory factor analyses. Combined samples of 155 students and noncollege adults completed a number of measures of inhibitory constructs such as self-control, emotional control, defensiveness, and obsessional thinking. A two-factor solution was reported for measures of behavioral and emotional control, with measures of defensiveness loading on the same factor as a number of measures of constraint and self-control. In a second analysis, including measures of ruminative thinking, three factors emerged pertaining to behavioral and emotional control and rumination. Behavioral inhibition correlated negatively with rumination but was uncorrelated with emotional inhibition. Emotional inhibition and rumination were positively correlated. The implications of these findings for research in the area of inhibition and well-being are discussed. © 1992.