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The role of expectancies and selective interrogation of information in trait anxiety-linked affect when approaching potentially stressful future events
... This pattern of findings has also been established in other research in cognitive psychology. For example, Tough et al. (2025;Preprint) observed a positive association between negative expectancy bias elevation and changes in state anxiety, and Reynolds et al. (2024) observed that negative expectancy bias indirectly predicts negative affect. Indeed, these recent findings echo the results of previous research, which has consistently linked negative expectancies to elevated anxiety (Steinman et al., 2013;Aue & Okon-Singer, 2015) Critically, these findings highlight the protective value of decreased negative expectancies against anxiety reactivity and, by association, emotional resilience in the lead up to a potentially stressful event. ...
... As predicted, all the original effects reported in Tough et al. (2025;Preprint) were replicated in the present study, except for one. Participants who reported greater elevations in negative than positive expectancies about the film montage tended to also report greater anxiety reactivity, which is consistent not only with Tough et al. (2025;Preprint) but also with recent research investigating the role of expectancies in predicting anticipatory anxiety (Tough et al., 2024;Reynolds et al., 2024). Critically, this finding adds further evidence supporting the notion that expectancies may offer protective value against low emotional resilience, manifested as high anxiety reactivity. ...
Anxiety reactivity, i.e., the degree to which state anxiety becomes elevated, has been used as a measure of emotional resilience in anticipation of potentially stressful events and has been found to correlate with elevations in event-related negative expectancy bias. The present study aimed to replicate this finding and investigate whether negative expectancy bias is also associated with low emotional resilience in the wake of the event, measured as anxiety perseveration, i.e., the degree to which state anxiety remains elevated after the event. A sample of undergraduate students was informed they would watch a film montage and presented with the choice to access negative or benign information relevant to the film montage. They were asked to rate their negative expectancy bias and state anxiety both before and after accessing this information, which permitted a measure of anxiety reactivity and negative expectancy bias elevation. Participants then watched the film montage and rated their experience and state anxiety again, which allowed for a measure of anxiety perseveration. The results revealed that negative expectancy bias predicted anxiety reactivity and predicted anxiety perseveration indirectly through its impact on the perceived negativity of the event. Although further investigation is required, these findings suggest interventions targeting negative expectancy bias may improve emotional resilience both in anticipation of and in the wake of stressful events.
... Although limited in number, prior research has provided evidence for this relationship. For instance, (Reynolds et al., 2024) found that negatively biased information seeking about an upcoming film viewing event predicted more negative expectations regarding the experience. In the context of the perinatal period, when approaching potentially stressful experiences such as issues related to pregnancy, birth, and the transition to parenthood, there is evidence that women actively seek out information in anticipation of these experiences (Deutsch et al., 1988;Kostagiolas et al., 2023;McKenzie, 2002). ...
... Specifically, in an online study, Mazidi et al. (2024) recruited first-time expecting mothers, and assessed their levels of prenatal RNT about the perinatal period, negative expectations about parenthood, and biased information seeking about parenthood. To assess participants' biased information seeking, the employed a variant of the Information Seeking Bias Assessment Task (Reynolds et al., 2024). ...
Abstract
Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) during pregnancy is a key risk factor for psychopathology in the perinatal period. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying prenatal RNT remain poorly understood. Recent research has suggested that a tendency to volitionally seek negative rather than positive information (i.e., biased information seeking) may contribute to the formation of more negative prenatal expectations, which in turn predict elevated prenatal RNT. The current study aimed (i) to replicate the findings of a previous study that demonstrated associations between expectations about parenthood, biased information seeking about parenthood-related information, and RNT, and (ii) examine the generality of the observed effects beyond parenthood by investigating whether biased information seeking and negative expectations show similar associations with prenatal RNT across the other two main domains of prenatal RNT, i.e., pregnancy and childbirth. A total of 126 first-time expecting mothers were recruited online and completed a task that assessed biased information seeking, along with questionnaires measuring prenatal RNT and expectations. Replicating previous findings, biased information seeking predicted stronger negative expectations, which in turn predicted higher prenatal RNT. These effects were consistent across the domains of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood, supporting the generality of the findings across these domains. These findings have important implications for expectation-focused interventions and cognitive bias modification procedures aimed at reducing prenatal RNT.
... The tendency to selectively interrogate one type of information over another type of information has recently been conceptualised as a selective interrogation bias (Reynolds et al., 2024). While research has not yet investigated the role of selective interrogation biases in SSB consumption, recent research provides support for the role of selective interrogation biases in the emotion domain. ...
... While research has not yet investigated the role of selective interrogation biases in SSB consumption, recent research provides support for the role of selective interrogation biases in the emotion domain. Specifically, the tendency to selectively interrogate more negative information than positive information about upcoming events has been implicated in both anxiety (Reynolds et al., 2024) and prenatal worry (Mazidi et al., 2023). Thus, it is plausible to propose that selective interrogation of taste-based, rather than health-based, characteristics of beverages is associated with greater SSB consumption. ...
... Given the potential significance of emotion beliefs in various psychological processes, an important next step is to investigate how these beliefs develop and why some individuals hold more maladaptive emotion beliefs, which could inform better strategies for modifying them. One cognitive mechanism recently examined for its role in shaping expectations and beliefs is biased information seeking Reynolds et al., 2024), which could be assessed using the Information Seeking Bias Assessment Task (Mazidi, Davies, et al., 2025), adapted to investigate its role in shaping beliefs about emotions. Another potential factor involves general beliefs about human nature. ...
Beliefs about emotions are an important yet understudied beliefs proposed to influence emotion regulation and psychological distress. Here, we replicated research on the relationship between beliefs about emotions in general, emotion regulation, and psychological distress, and extended it by examining the relative importance of beliefs about one’s own emotions and others’ emotions. A sample of 244 adults completed self-report measures of beliefs about emotions, as well as emotion regulation and psychological distress. Our results demonstrated that maladaptive beliefs about emotions are associated with a more maladaptive pattern of emotion regulation strategy use and heightened psychological distress. This pattern was observed for beliefs about emotions in general, as well as beliefs about one’s own and others’ emotions. Moreover, beliefs about one’s own emotions explained a significantly greater proportion of variance in emotion regulation and psychological distress than beliefs about others’ emotions. Mediation analyses indicated that, across all three types of emotion beliefs, stronger maladaptive beliefs were associated with heightened psychological distress through lower use of reappraisal and greater use of suppression. These findings support the specifications of the affective science frameworks like the process model of emotion regulation, highlighting the important role of emotion beliefs in emotion regulation and affective outcomes.
... Given the potential significance of emotion beliefs in various psychological processes, an important next step is to investigate how these beliefs develop and why some individuals hold more maladaptive emotion beliefs, which could inform better strategies for modifying them. One cognitive mechanism recently examined for its role in shaping expectations and beliefs is biased information seeking Reynolds et al., 2024), which could be assessed using the Information Seeking Bias Assessment Task (Mazidi, Davies, et al., 2025), adapted to investigate its role in shaping beliefs about emotions. Another potential factor involves general beliefs about human nature. ...
Background: Beliefs about emotions are an important yet understudied beliefs proposed to influence emotion regulation and psychological distress. Here, we replicated research on the relationship between beliefs about emotions in general, emotion regulation, and psychological distress, and extended it by examining the relative importance of beliefs about one’s own emotions and others’ emotions. Methods: A sample of 244 adults completed self-report measures of beliefs about emotions, as well as emotion regulation and psychological distress. Results: Our results demonstrated that maladaptive beliefs about emotions are associated with a more maladaptive pattern of emotion regulation strategy use and heightened psychological distress. This pattern was observed for beliefs about emotions in general, as well as beliefs about one’s own and others’ emotions. Moreover, beliefs about one’s own emotions explained a significantly greater proportion of variance in emotion regulation and psychological distress than beliefs about others’ emotions. Mediation analyses indicated that, across all three types of emotion beliefs, stronger maladaptive beliefs were associated with heightened psychological distress through lower use of reappraisal and greater use of suppression. Conclusions: These findings support the specifications of the affective science frameworks like the process model of emotion regulation, highlighting the important role of emotion beliefs in emotion regulation and affective outcomes.
The current study examined the association between elevated prenatal worry and negative expectancies about parenthood and the potential cognitive mechanisms driving such expectancies. Two main hypotheses were examined: First, that negative expectancies about parenthood contribute to elevated prenatal worry, and second, negative selective interrogation of information about parenthood contributes to the formation of more negative expectancies about parenthood. The study recruited 92 first-time pregnant women and evaluated their prenatal worry, parenthood expectancies, and tendency to volitionally choose negative rather than positive information about parenthood (i.e., demonstrate a negative interrogation
bias). Our findings revealed a significant association between negative expectancies about parenthood and elevated prenatal worry. Additionally, those with a negative interrogation bias were more likely to hold negative expectancies concerning
parenthood. The relationship between this bias and prenatal worry was mediated by negative expectancies. Findings are discussed with regards to limitations and potential implications for expectancy-focused interventions for prenatal worry.
Maintaining data quality on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has always been a concern for researchers. These concerns have grown recently due to the bot crisis of 2018 and observations that past safeguards of data quality (e.g., approval ratings of 95%) no longer work. To address data quality concerns, CloudResearch, a third-party website that interfaces with MTurk, has assessed ~165,000 MTurkers and categorized them into those that provide high- (~100,000, Approved) and low- (~65,000, Blocked) quality data. Here, we examined the predictive validity of CloudResearch’s vetting. In a pre-registered study, participants (N = 900) from the Approved and Blocked groups, along with a Standard MTurk sample (95% HIT acceptance ratio, 100+ completed HITs), completed an array of data-quality measures. Across several indices, Approved participants (i) identified the content of images more accurately, (ii) answered more reading comprehension questions correctly, (iii) responded to reversed coded items more consistently, (iv) passed a greater number of attention checks, (v) self-reported less cheating and actually left the survey window less often on easily Googleable questions, (vi) replicated classic psychology experimental effects more reliably, and (vii) answered AI-stumping questions more accurately than Blocked participants, who performed at chance on multiple outcomes. Data quality of the Standard sample was generally in between the Approved and Blocked groups. We discuss how MTurk’s Approval Rating system is no longer an effective data-quality control, and we discuss the advantages afforded by using the Approved group for scientific studies on MTurk.
Research on the effect of exposure to minor stressors in people’s daily lives consistently reports negative effects on indicators of well-being, often coined stress reactivity. Recent advances in the intensity of data collection have brought about an increasing interest in within-day associations of stress exposure and indicators of well-being, including dynamic aspects of the stress response such as stress recovery. In the present work, we investigated the other end of the stress response: the anticipation of a stressor. We hypothesized that anticipation of an upcoming stressor would be accompanied by higher negative affect. Based on the anticipatory coping account, lower negative affect after occurrence of anticipated (versus not anticipated) stressors was predicted. We approached this question with a measurement burst study that allowed us to disentangle variation in stress processes across different time scales. One-hundred and seventy-five participants (mean age = 50, range 20-79) completed up to three measurement bursts. Each burst consisted of an ecological momentary assessment with five assessments per day over seven days. In line with our expectations, negative affect was significantly higher after stressor anticipation, especially on days with high levels of intrusive thoughts. However, negative affect was not lower after anticipated (versus not anticipated) stressors. Findings point to the role of perseverative cognition in the effect of stressor anticipation. Directions for future research including the role of controllability and effects on stress recovery are outlined.
The evidence for an anxiety-related memory bias is contradictory. We compiled 171 articles published until October 2016 including a group with clinical or subclinical anxiety and a control group in tasks involving implicit or explicit memory using threatening stimuli. There was an anxiety-related memory bias in free recall tasks, but it was not observed in another memory task. The between-groups differences showed that the anxious group recalled more threatening stimuli than the control group (d = 0.321). When we compared the group differences (anxious vs. control participants) in the within-groups effect (threatening vs. neutral stimuli), a moderate effect size emerged (dbw = 0.714). This anxiety-related memory bias was observed with shallow processing, that is consistent with attentional biases related to anxiety. There was also evidence that high-anxious persons recall fewer positive stimuli. Future research is needed to investigate whether this result is a memory or encoding bias and explore other moderator variables.
Fear appeals are a polarizing issue, with proponents confident in their efficacy and opponents confident that they backfire. We present the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis investigating fear appeals' effectiveness for influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. We tested predictions from a large number of theories, the majority of which have never been tested meta-analytically until now. Studies were included if they contained a treatment group exposed to a fear appeal, a valid comparison group, a manipulation of depicted fear, a measure of attitudes, intentions, or behaviors concerning the targeted risk or recommended solution, and adequate statistics to calculate effect sizes. The meta-analysis included 127 articles (9% unpublished) yielding 248 independent samples (NTotal = 27,372) collected from diverse populations. Results showed a positive effect of fear appeals on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, with the average effect on a composite index being random-effects d = 0.29. Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients. Overall, we conclude that (a) fear appeals are effective at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviors; (b) there are very few circumstances under which they are not effective; and (c) there are no identified circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
We agree with Landers and Behrend's (2015) proposition that Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) may provide great opportunities for organizational research samples. However, some groups are characteristically difficult to recruit because they are stigmatized or socially disenfranchised (Birman, 2005; Miller, Forte, Wilson, & Greene, 2006; Sullivan & Cain, 2004; see Campbell, Adams, & Patterson, 2008, for a review). These groups may include individuals who have not previously been the focus of much organizational research, such as those of low socioeconomic status; individuals with disabilities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) individuals; or victims of workplace harassment. As Landers and Behrend (2015) point out, there is an overrepresentation of research using “Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic” participants. It is important to extend research beyond these samples to examine workplace phenomena that are specific to special populations. We contribute to this argument by noting the particular usefulness that MTurk can provide for sampling from hard-to-reach populations, which we characterize as groups that are in the numerical minority in terms of nationwide representation. To clarify, we focus our discussion on populations that are traditionally hard to reach in the context of contemporary organizational research within the United States.
Expectancies are core features of mental disorders, and change in expectations is therefore one of the core mechanisms of treatment in psychiatry. We aim to improve our understanding of expectancies by summarizing factors that contribute to their development, persistence, and modification. We pay particular attention to the issue of persistence of expectancies despite experiences that contradict them.
Based on recent research findings, we propose a new model for expectation persistence and expectation change. When expectations are established, effects are evident in neural and other biological systems, for example, via anticipatory reactions, different biological reactions to expected versus unexpected stimuli, etc. Psychological 'immunization' and 'assimilation', implicit self-confirming processes, and stability of biological processes help us to better understand why expectancies persist even in the presence of expectation violations.
Learning theory, attentional processes, social influences, and biological determinants contribute to the development, persistence, and modification of expectancies. Psychological interventions should focus on optimizing expectation violation to achieve optimal treatment outcome and to avoid treatment failures.
Although it is well documented that anxious individuals have negative expectations about the future, it is unclear what cognitive processes give rise to this expectancy bias. Two studies are reported that use the Expectancy Task, which is designed to assess expectancy bias and illuminate its basis. This task presents individuals with valenced scenarios (Positive Valence, Negative Valence, or Conflicting Valence), and then evaluates their tendency to expect subsequent future positive relative to negative events. The Expectancy Task was used with low and high trait anxious (Study 1: n = 32) and anxiety sensitive (Study 2: n = 138) individuals. Results suggest that in the context of physical concerns, both high anxious samples display a less positive expectancy bias. In the context of social concerns, high trait anxious individuals display a negative expectancy bias only when negatively valenced information was previously presented. Overall, this suggests that anxious individuals display a less positive expectancy bias, and that the processes that give rise to this bias may vary by type of situation (e.g., social or physical) or anxiety difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Social anxiety is theorised to arise from sustained over-activation of a mammalian evolved system for detecting and responding to social threat with corresponding diminished opportunities for attaining the pleasure of safe attachments. Emotional forecasting data from two holidays were used to test the hypothesis that greater social anxiety would be associated with decreased expectations of positive affect (PA) and greater anticipated negative affect (NA) on a holiday marked by group celebration (St. Patrick's Day) while being associated with greater predicted PA for daters on a romantic holiday (Valentine's Day). Participants completed symptom reports, made affective forecasts and provided multiple affect reports throughout each holiday. Higher levels of social anxiety were associated with greater anticipated PA for Valentine's Day daters, but lower experienced PA on the holiday; this was not found for trait anxiety and depression. Alternatively, trait anxiety, depression and social anxiety were associated with less predicted PA for St. Patrick's Day, greater anticipated NA and diminished experienced PA/greater NA during the holiday. Results are discussed in light of perceived hope for rewarding safe emotional contact for those daters in contrast to the greater possibility for social threat associated with group celebration typical of St. Patrick's Day.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a pervasive problem associated with debilitating impairments in social settings. This research explored the affective and physiological reactions to social evaluation and examined the efficacy of an arousal reappraisal intervention in altering cardiovascular reactivity and affective responses. Across two studies, socially anxious participants exhibited a disjunction between subjective ratings and physiological responses. Whereas anxious individuals reported more anxiety and negative affect during a stressful public speaking task relative to nonanxious controls, no differences emerged in physiological reactivity as a function of anxiety. In the second experiment socially anxious and nonanxious participants instructed to reframe stress arousal as a positive coping tool exhibited reduced attentional bias and improvements in physiological functioning: decreased vasoconstriction and increased cardiac efficiency. This research suggests that outcomes in SAD may be improved by reappraising stress arousal.
Contrary to lay beliefs, physiological changes that co-occur with stress are not necessarily bad. Much can be done during stressful experiences to promote adaptive responses. In this article, we review recent research on one method for improving acute stress responses: reappraising arousal. A growing body of research suggests that cognitive appraisals are powerful tools that help shift negative stress states to more positive ones. Arousal reappraisal instructs individuals to think of stress arousal as a tool that helps maximize performance. By reframing the meaning of the physiological signals that accompany stress, arousal reappraisal breaks the link between negative affective experiences and malignant physiological responses. We demonstrate how this approach can benefit physiological reactivity, attention, and performance and explore its potential applications.
The strength of the relationship between anxiety and performance varies from study to study with correlations from extreme negative to positive values. In order to reveal the sources of this inconsistency, a series of meta-analyses was conducted using the Schmidt-Hunter algorithm for effect sizes r.One hundred and twenty-six studies published from 1975 to 1988, based on a total sample of 36,626 subjects, were located after a comprehensive literature search. They include 156 independent samples. An overall analysis with the 156 effect sizes yielded a population effect size of r = −.21. Further analyses aimed at exploring moderator variables that would account for the residual variance, but tests of gender, culture (USA, West Germany and others), and anxiety stability (state/trait) failed to unveil the expected moderator impact. However, analyses with the anxiety components worry and emotionality, kinds of anxiety such as general and test anxiety, and the anxiety measurement point in time yielded systematic differences: the more cognitively determined and the more specific the anxiety measure, the closer was its association with academic performance. A closer relationship was also found if anxiety was measured after the performance situation compared to being measured before.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of life (QOL) of students and to determine the relationship between state-trait anxiety levels and QOL. This research was done with ½ sampling method of 276 students at Erciyes University. The data were gathered via the WHOQOL-100 Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL Group, 1998) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushelle, 1970). The lowest scoring area in our study was the social impression facet. The area scoring highest was the personal belief area. Negative correlations were found between level of state anxiety and physical health, psychological well-being, and level of independence. Positive correlations were found between level of trait anxiety and physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships, environment, overall QOL and general health perceptions.
Despite the growing interest in future-oriented cognition in various areas of psychology, there is still little empirical data regarding the occurrence and nature of future-oriented thoughts in daily life. In this study, participants recorded future-oriented thoughts occurring in natural settings and rated their characteristics and functions. The results show that future-oriented thoughts occur frequently in daily life and can take different representational formats (more or less abstract), embrace various thematic contents (e.g. work, relationships) and serve a range of functions (e.g. action planning, decision making). The functions and characteristics of thoughts differed according to their temporal distance, with thoughts referring to the near future being more specific and serving action planning to a greater extent than thoughts concerning the far future. The characteristics of future thoughts were also related to affective content, with positive thoughts being more frequent, more specific, and associated with more visual images than negative thoughts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This work tries to provide a systematic outline of the manifold relations between emotion and anticipatory activity. We first
address the route from emotion to anticipation, which implies considering the anticipatory function of emotion in a twofold
sense. On the one hand, emotions may mediate the relationship between a stimulus and a response, by triggering anticipatory
behaviors which are not based on cognitive representations of future states or events (preparatory emotions). On the other
hand, emotions may accomplish the function of signaling underlying mental states (premonitory emotions), that is, the fact
of experiencing a certain emotion may induce some anticipatory belief. Then we address the route from anticipation to emotion,
by considering those emotional states which are elicited by anticipatory representations (expectation-based emotions). Whereas
in premonitory emotions, the latter induce some expectation, in expectation-based emotions, the causal relationship is reversed;
the expectation of a certain event elicits an emotional response. Here we are in the domain of cognitive appraisal proper,
with the sole restriction that the appraisal regards future events. Moreover, the route from anticipation to emotion also
accounts for those emotions – such as disappointment and relief – which are elicited by the invalidation of expectations (invalidation-based
emotions). Finally, we discuss a third kind of interaction between emotion and anticipatory activity, that is, the anticipation
of future emotions. Emotions are here the object of anticipatory representations, rather a response to them. Two kinds of
expected emotions are identified, “cold” expectations versus “hot” expectations of emotions (which include some anticipated
feeling), and their role in decision making is discussed.
Researchers have theorized that changing the way we think about our bodily responses can improve our physiological and cognitive reactions to stressful events. However, the underlying processes through which mental states improve downstream outcomes are not well understood. To this end, we examined whether reappraising stress-induced arousal could improve cardiovascular outcomes and decrease attentional bias for emotionally negative information. Participants were randomly assigned to either a reappraisal condition in which they were instructed to think about their physiological arousal during a stressful task as functional and adaptive, or to 1 of 2 control conditions: attention reorientation and no instructions. Relative to controls, participants instructed to reappraise their arousal exhibited more adaptive cardiovascular stress responses-increased cardiac efficiency and lower vascular resistance-and decreased attentional bias. Thus, reappraising arousal shows physiological and cognitive benefits. Implications for health and potential clinical applications are discussed.
Most empirical tests of mediation utilize cross-sectional data despite the fact that mediation consists of causal processes that unfold over time. The authors considered the possibility that longitudinal mediation might occur under either of two different models of change: (a) an autoregressive model or (b) a random effects model. For both models, the authors demonstrated that cross-sectional approaches to mediation typically generate substantially biased estimates of longitudinal parameters even under the ideal conditions when mediation is complete. In longitudinal models where variable M completely mediates the effect of X on Y, cross-sectional estimates of the direct effect of X on Y, the indirect effect of X on Y through M, and the proportion of the total effect mediated by M are often highly misleading.
An important emphasis of the literature on generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been to achieve a greater understanding of the function of emotion (e.g., avoidance, dysregulation) in the etiology and maintenance of this disorder. The purpose of the following paper is to propose a new way of conceptualizing emotional sequelae in GAD by detailing the Contrast Avoidance Model of Worry. In presenting this model, we review theory and data that led to our current position, which is that individuals with GAD are more sensitive to feeling emotionally vulnerable to unexpected negative events, and that worry (the key pathological feature of GAD) is employed to prolong and maintain a negative emotional state thereby avoiding an unexpected negative emotional shift, or contrast experience. We also discuss implications for treatment given the presence of a new target for emotional exposure techniques. Finally, we establish the Contrast Avoidance Model within the framework of extant theories and models of pathogenic processes of GAD.
Cognitive models of anxiety disorders and unipolar depression have postulated that selective information processing plays an important role in the development and maintenance of emotional psychopathology. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures have recently been developed to test this theoretical claim. The purpose of this special section is to introduce the central ideas underlying CBM and to bring together the research that exemplifies the theoretical and clinical potential of the CBM approach.
Background
Anxiety disorders (AD) are common mental disorders, for which several cost-of-illness (COI) studies have been conducted in the past.
Objective
The aim of this review was to provide a systematic overview of these studies and an aggregation of their results.
Methods
A systematic literature search limited to studies published after 1999 was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE in November 2018. We included top-down COI studies reporting costs for AD, and bottom-up COI studies reporting costs for AD and a non-diseased control group, and extracted data manually. Results of the top-down COI studies were aggregated by calculating the mean percentage of costs on gross domestic product (GDP) and health expenditure, while the results of the bottom-up studies were analyzed meta-analytically using the ‘ratio of means’ method and inverse-variance pooling. In this review, the logarithm of the relative difference in a continuous outcome between two groups is calculated and aggregated over the studies. The results can be interpreted as the relative change in costs imposed by a specific disease compared with baseline costs.
Results
We identified 13 top-down and 11 bottom-up COI studies. All top-down COI studies and four bottom-up COI studies reported costs for AD as a diagnostic group, four for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), four for social anxiety disorder (SAD), and one for panic disorder. In top-down COI studies, direct costs of AD, on average, corresponded to 2.08% of health care costs and 0.22% of GDP, whereas indirect costs, on average, corresponded to 0.23% of GDP. In bottom-up COI studies, direct costs of patients with AD were increased by factor 2.17 (1.29–3.67; p = 0.004) and indirect costs were increased by factor 1.92 (1.05–3.53; p = 0.04), whereas total costs increased by factor 2.52 (1.73–3.68; p < 0.001). Subgroup analysis revealed an increase in direct costs by 1.60 (1.16–2.22; p = 0.005) for SAD and 2.60 (2.01–3.36; p < 0.001) for GAD. Measures of heterogeneity indicated high heterogeneity when pooling studies for direct costs, indirect costs, and total costs, but low to moderate heterogeneity when pooling studies for SAD or GAD.
Conclusions
Using methods that focused on relative rather than absolute costs, we were able to aggregate costs reported in different COI studies for ADs. We found that ADs were associated with a low proportion of health care costs on a population level, but significantly increased health care costs on an individual level compared with healthy controls. Our disorder-specific subgroup analysis showed that study findings are most homogeneous within specific ADs. Therefore, to get a more detailed picture of the costs of ADs, more studies for currently under researched ADs, such as panic disorder, are needed.
An exacerbated physiological response to stress is associated with the development of stress-related disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety disorders). Recently, it has been proposed that individuals with high expectancies of being able to deal with stressful situations will activate regulatory mechanisms during the anticipation of the stressful event that would improve stress regulation. To test this hypothesis, 52 women in young adulthood (M = 21.06; SD = 2.58) anticipated and performed a laboratory-based stress task after receiving positive or negative feedback on their abilities to deal with stressful events. Heart rate variability and salivary cortisol were assessed throughout the experimental protocol. Participants receiving positive feedback (i.e., High Expectancy group) showed a more positive anticipatory cognitive stress appraisal (i.e., they anticipated the stress task as less threatening/challenging, and they perceived that they were more able to deal with it), and they showed a lower cortisol response to stress. Moreover, a more positive anticipatory cognitive stress appraisal was associated with better anticipatory stress regulation (indexed as less decrease in heart rate variability), leading to a lower cortisol response. Our results indicate that people with positive expectancy initiate mechanisms of anticipatory stress regulation that enhance the regulation of the physiological stress response. Expectancy and anticipatory stress regulation may be key mechanisms in the development and treatment of stress-related disorders.
This paper analyzes the role of different origins to news media in selective exposure. We rely on a unique web-tracking online dataset from Spain to identify points of access to news outlets and study the influence of direct navigation and news-referred platforms (i.e., from Facebook and Google) on selective exposure. We also explore cross-level interactions between origins to news and political interest and ideology. We find that direct navigation increases selective exposure while Google reduces it. We also find that the relationship between origins to news and selective exposure is strongly moderated by ideology, suggesting that search engines and social media are not content neutral. Our findings suggest a rather complex picture regarding selective exposure online.
This brief reflection considers some of the important developments in anxiety-linked attentional bias research that have marked the three decades since the launch of Cognition and Emotion, and also identifies several challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I suggest that the steady increase in our capacity to distinguish differing facets of attentional bias and alternative dimensions of anxiety vulnerability, together with the advent of attentional bias modification techniques that can illuminate causality, has enriched theoretical understanding and created the exciting potential for clinical translation. In order to fully capitalise on this potential, I propose that researchers should address the challenge of enhancing the psychometric properties of our assessment measures, and developing training procedures that not only modify attentional bias more effectively, but that motivate sustained patient engagement. I end with some personal advice to young investigators developing their research careers within this stimulating and rewarding field of scientific inquiry.
Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is extensively used in the field of information systems, as well as in many other fields where multivariate statistical methods are used. One of the most fundamental issues in PLS-SEM is that of minimum sample size estimation. The '10-times rule' has been a favourite because of its simplicity of application, even though it tends to yield imprecise estimates. We propose two related methods, based on mathematical equations, as alternatives for minimum sample size estimation in PLS-SEM: the inverse square root method, and the gamma-exponential method. Based on three Monte Carlo experiments, we demonstrate that both methods are fairly accurate. The inverse square root method is particularly attractive in terms of its simplicity of application.
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety during expectation of performance-related situations is an important feature of the psychopathology
of social anxiety disorder (SAD). The neural basis of anticipatory anxiety in SAD has not been investigated in controlled
studies. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates during the
anticipation of public and evaluated speaking vs a control condition in 17 SAD patients and 17 healthy control subjects. FMRI results show increased activation of the insula
and decreased activation of the ventral striatum in SAD patients, compared to control subjects during anticipation of a speech
vs the control condition. In addition, an activation of the amygdala in SAD patients during the first half of the anticipation
phase in the speech condition was observed. Finally, the amount of anticipatory anxiety of SAD patients was negatively correlated
to the activation of the ventral striatum. This suggests an association between incentive function, motivation and anticipatory
anxiety when SAD patients expect a performance situation.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the levels of anticipatory public speaking state and trait anxiety at three pre‐performance milestones or significant events: (1) the moment when the public speech was assigned in class, (2) the mid‐point of a laboratory session during which the speeches were being prepared, and (3) the moment immediately preceding formal presentation of the speech to the class. The results indicate that both state and trait anxiety levels during these events were ordered in a quadratic, v‐shaped episodic pattern as follows: the highest level of anticipatory anxiety occurred just before speaking, the second highest level occurred at the time the assignment was announced and explained, and the lowest level was measured during the time students were preparing their speeches.
Once considered to be a disorder associated with minimal impairment, the link between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and impairment across a broad constellation of domains is now well established. However, less is known about how comorbidity affects these relationships or how GAD impacts one's perceived life satisfaction or quality of life. To investigate these questions, data from 52 treatment-seeking individuals with GAD (33 with comorbid Axis I diagnoses) were compared to data from 55 nonanxious controls. Individuals with GAD reported more impairment at work and in their social functioning than they did with home and family responsibilities. They also reported lower quality of life than nonanxious controls, particularly in regard to self-esteem, goals and values, money, work, play, learning, creativity, friends, and relatives. Trait worry was positively correlated with impairment and inversely related to life satisfaction within the clinical sample. Individuals with GAD, with and without comorbid Axis I diagnoses, showed few differences on measures of impairment (differing only on impairment in social functioning). However, individuals with GAD and comorbid disorders perceived their lives as less satisfying than did individuals with GAD without comorbid diagnoses. Depression and Anxiety 24:342–349, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Clinical anxiety disorders and elevated levels of anxiety vulnerability are characterized by cognitive biases, and this processing selectivity has been implicated in theoretical accounts of these conditions. We review research that has sought to evaluate the causal contributions such biases make to anxiety dysfunction and to therapeutically alleviate anxiety using cognitive-bias modification (CBM) procedures. After considering the purpose and nature of CBM methodologies, we show that variants designed to modify selective attention (CBM-A) or interpretation (CBM-I) have proven capable of reducing anxiety vulnerability and ameliorating dysfunctional anxiety. In addition to supporting the causal role of cognitive bias in anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction and illuminating the mechanisms that underpin such bias, the findings suggest that CBM procedures may have therapeutic promise within clinical settings. We discuss key issues within this burgeoning field of research and suggest future directions CBM research should take to maximize its theoretical and applied value.
Patterns of synchrony in repeated measures of heart rate, skin conductance levels, negative affect, and positive affect were investigated in patients with social anxiety disorder and non-anxious controls during a speech task. Despite expected low levels of absolute concordance between measures of affect and arousal overall, results revealed clearly defined and specific patterns of emotional response coherence that distinguished between the two groups and depended on the types of measures used. Specifically, findings demonstrated that (a) for both patients and controls, increased heart rate was significantly synchronized with increased negative affect, with patients showing overall stronger levels of synchrony between these two measures than controls; (b) for controls only, increased heart rate was significantly synchronized with increased positive affect; and (c) for patients only, increased skin conductance was significantly synchronized with both increased negative affect and decreased positive affect. These findings are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations of the construct of emotion as well as directions for future research and potential implications for clinical practice.
The current study examined the relationship between measures of trait vulnerability and long-term outcome in 83 patients diagnosed and treated for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) 8-14 years previously. Diagnostic status was assessed by structured interview, and trait affect, trait anxiety and trait depression were measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) and the Personal Style Inventory (PSI), respectively. Trait measures were all highly inter-correlated, and patients with diagnoses of GAD, social phobia and depressive disorders at long-term follow-up recorded very poor scores on all three scales. Trait anxiety recorded pre-treatment was also related to both anxiety and depression at long-term follow-up. However, trait depression showed no significant association with panic disorder. Increased numbers of comorbid diagnoses were strongly related to high levels of both trait anxiety and negative affect (NA). The findings suggest that patients reporting high trait anxiety or NA may suffer from a chronic course of disorder and higher levels of comorbidity over the longer term.
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Much research has suggested that those who stutter are likely to be anxious. However, to date, little research on this topic has addressed the role of expectancies of harm in anxiety, which is a central construct of anxiety in modern clinical psychology. There are good reasons to believe that the anxiety of those who stutter is related to expectancies of social harm. Therefore, in the present study, 34 stuttering and 34 control participants completed the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scale and the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T). The FNE data showed a significant difference between the stuttering and control participants, with a large effect size. Results suggested that, as a group, a clinical population of people who stutter has anxiety that is restricted to the social domain. For the EMAS-T, significant differences between groups were obtained for the two subtests that refer specifically to people and social interactions in which social evaluation might occur (Social Evaluation and New/Strange Situations) but not for the subtests that contained no specific reference to people and social interactions (Physical Danger and Daily Routines). These results were taken to suggest that those who stutter differ from control subjects in their expectation of negative social evaluation, and that the effect sizes are clinically significant. The findings also suggest that the FNE and the EMAS-T are appropriate psychological tests of anxiety to use with stuttering clients in clinical settings. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed, in terms of whether social anxiety mediates stuttering or is a simple by-product of stuttering. Possible laboratory explorations of this issue are suggested, and potential Cognitive Behavior Therapy packages for stuttering clients who might need them are discussed.
Educational objectives:
The reader will be able to: (1) explain why expectancy of social threat or harm may be associated with stuttering; (2) name and describe two psychological tests that are suitable for assessment of the social threat or harm that may be associated with stuttering; and (3) explain how findings for the EMAS-T test in the present results suggest that expectancy of social threat or harm, but not other kinds of negative expectancy, are associated with stuttering.
Two studies investigating the cognitive processes associated with anticipatory social anxiety are reported. Study 1 used a semi-structured interview to compare high and low socially anxious individuals ( [Formula: see text] per group) in terms of their reported mental processes during periods of anticipatory social anxiety. Study 2 investigated the anxiety inducing effects of the mental processes that were shown to be characteristic of high socially anxious individuals in Study 1. Prior to giving a speech, high and low socially anxious individuals ( [Formula: see text] per group) either engaged in these processes or performed a distraction task. The results of Study 1 were broadly consistent with Clark and Wells' (In: R.G. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D.A. Hope, F.R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Treatment (pp. 69-93). New York: Guilford Press, 1995) hypotheses about the nature of anticipatory processing in social anxiety. Study 2 showed that, compared to distraction, engaging in the mental processes characteristic of high socially anxious individuals was associated with sustained elevations of anticipatory anxiety in both high and low socially anxious individuals, and led to higher levels of peak anxiety during the speech. The findings suggest that high and low socially anxious individuals show systematic differences in their mental processes prior to a stressful social event, and are consistent with the suggestion that these differences play an important role in sustaining anticipatory anxiety.
Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice
- D A Clark
- A T Beck
Waiting for spiders: Brain activation during anticipatory anxiety in spider phobics
- Straube