Psychopathy and looming cognitive style: Moderation by attentional control

Psychopathy has long been associated with lower anxiety. This study examined the relationship between self-reported psychopathy and one of the anxiety-related cognitions, looming cognitive style (LCS; Riskind, Williams, Gessner, Chrosniak, & Cortina, 2000), among students. LCS reflects the tendency to perceive danger as rapidly increasing, as opposed to making a static risk assessment. This study focused on LCS not only because it has a strong association with anxiety, but also because studies employing the Card Playing Task have shown that psychopathy predicts difficulty in detecting changing contingencies. Attentional control was included as a possible moderator of a psychopathy-LCS link. Two questionnaire studies (n = 157 and 312) revealed an inverse relation between psychopathy and LCS in low-attention participants. This suggests that reduced cognitive resources inhibited those with psychopathic tendencies from imagining rapidly developing threats. The results are discussed in terms of the resource requirements of risk cognitions, the multi-dimensional nature of attention, and a defective behavioral inhibition system in (secondary) psychopathy. This study suggests the importance of considering attention when analyzing the psychopathy-anxiety link. Future studies should use multi-dimensional analysis of attentional control and multiple measures of psychopathy.     

Interactive Effects of Looming Cognitive Style and Maladaptive Perfectionism on Trait Anxiety

Perfectionism is suggested as a transdiagnostic factor, related to development and maintenance of many psychological disorders. Looming Cognitive Style (LCS), on the other hand, is unique to anxiety disorders, acting as a specific a cognitive vulnerability for anxiety disorders. The present study aims to assess the association of anxiety with two cognitive vulnerability factors, LCS and maladaptive perfectionism. It was hypothesized that maladaptive perfectionism will have moderator role in the relationship between LCS and anxiety. A similar relationship is not expected for depression. Data were collected from 326 university students through self-report measures of LCS, perfectionism, anxiety, and depression. Results indicated the significant moderator roles of maladaptive perfectionism in the relationship of LCS with anxiety, even when the symptoms of depression are controlled. That is, maladaptive perfectionism was associated with higher levels of anxiety especially in individuals who had higher levels of looming vulnerability. A similar moderating effect of maladaptive perfectionism was not observed for depression. The results altogether emphasize the importance of examining the interactive effects of different vulnerability factors in understanding the mechanisms through which the risk factors operate.     

Moderator Role of Looming Cognitive Style (LCS) in the Relationship Between Attentional Control and Anxiety: Difference Between Shifting and Focusing Dimensions

Attentional control (AC) that is composed of shifting and focusing dimensions had been suggested as a transdiagnostic risk factor, associated with development and maintenance of various psychological disorders. In comparison, Looming Cognitive Style (LCS) had been documented as a trait-based, disorders-specific characteristic that is linked to high levels of subjectively felt anxiety. The present study investigated whether individual differences in LCS moderated the association of shifting and focusing with anxiety. Participants were 402 individuals between ages 18 and 68 recruited through advertisements posted on various forums, e-mail groups, and social media websites. They filled out questionnaires assessing AC, LCS, anxiety, and depression online. Results of the moderation analyses indicated that at high levels of LCS, low attentional shifting ability was associated with more intense anxiety. A similar relationship with LCS was not observed for focusing. In conclusion, for individuals who have high LCS and low shifting ability, content of and distress coming from looming images is experienced in a more intense manner due to difficulty in shifting to another (perhaps less anxiety provoking) content more flexibly. The findings are providing support for the interactive–synergistic perspective, indicating that deficits in shifting capacity may potentiate negative impact of looming cognitions.     

The looming maladaptive style in social anxiety

This exploratory study examined the relationship between the looming maladaptive style (i.e., an enduring and traitlike cognitive pattern to appraise threat as rapidly rising in risk, progressively worsening, or actively speeding up and accelerating) and three different aspects of trait social anxiety (i.e., fear of negative evaluation, social interaction anxiety, and public scrutiny fears) as well as general anxiety and depression. A large nonclinical, female-only sample (n = 152) completed the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire–II (Riskind, J. H., Williams, N. L., Theodore, L. G., Chrosniak, L. D., & Cortina, J. M. (2000). The looming maladaptive style: Anxiety, danger, and schematic processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 837–852), which assesses two types of looming vulnerability: social (i.e., looming appraisals in response to potentially threatening social situations) and physical (i.e., looming appraisals in response to potentially threatening physical stimuli). Multiple regression analyses indicated that social looming uniquely predicted fear of negative evaluation, social interaction anxiety, and public scrutiny fears, accounting for 7%, 4%, and 3% of the variance, respectively. However, social looming did not predict depression. These findings support the looming model of anxiety and encourage further attention to the possible role of social looming as an anxiety-specific vulnerability factor in social anxiety.     

The role of emotional maltreatment and looming cognitive style in the development of social anxiety symptoms in late adolescents

Background: Social looming constitutes a specific cognitive vulnerability that acts as a danger schema and biases the processing of threat-related information associated with the development of social anxiety disorder. This model characterizes early negative experiences as critical to the formation of looming cognitive style. Furthermore, research has found links between parental emotional abuse and peer victimization and social anxiety. Design: A three-wave longitudinal design was used to analyze the role of parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization in the onset of social anxiety symptoms through the development of this cognitive style. Methods: The final sample was made up of 307 females and 243 males (M_age?=?16.97, SD_age?=?.81). Perceived parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization by participants were measured at Time 1, social looming was measured at Time 1 and 2, and social anxiety symptoms were measured at Times 1, 2, and 3. Results: Parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization were related to social anxiety cross-sectionally. Longitudinally, social looming acted as a mediator in the relationship between parents’ emotional abuse and social anxiety. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms through which emotional abuse and peer victimization impact social looming and contribute to social anxiety.     

Negative cognitive style and looming cognitive style synergistically predict stress generation

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that cognitive vulnerabilities to depression or anxiety may lead individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events. However, there has been no study to date that examines the effects of co-occurring vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety. In a sample of 304 participants, we examined the potential interaction of co-occurring negative cognitive style, a vulnerability to depression and looming cognitive style, vulnerability to anxiety. Results indicate that co-occurring cognitive vulnerabilities synergistically predict higher levels of negative interpersonal life events six weeks later, even when controlling for initial levels of stressful life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Thus, co-occurring vulnerabilities may have stronger stress generating effects than would be expected from the additive effects of each vulnerability considered separately. This finding highlights the importance of examining cognitive vulnerabilities as interactive effects rather than as individual vulnerabilities.     

Hierarchical Model of Generalized and Specific Vulnerabilities in Anxiety

This study evaluated a theoretical hierarchical relationship among the general anxiety vulnerability variable of neuroticism, the specific vulnerability variables of anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty, and variables reflecting specific anxiety foci including panic symptoms, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and generalized anxiety/worry. Questionnaires assessing these variables were administered to a non-clinical sample of 91 first-year psychology students (64.8% women). Path analysis results were highly consistent with the hypothesized hierarchical model. Neuroticism was found to have a significant direct effect on both anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty. Both neuroticism and anxiety sensitivity had direct significant effects on panic symptoms, neuroticism and intolerance of uncertainty both made significant direct contributions to the prediction of worry, and neuroticism made a significant direct contribution to the prediction of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Contrary to the hypothesized model, anxiety sensitivity but not neuroticism uniquely predicted health anxiety. The results of this study provide initial empirical evidence for a hierarchical relationship among general and specific vulnerabilities, and specific anxiety manifestations.     

Hierarchical model of generalized and specific vulnerabilities in anxiety

This study evaluated a theoretical hierarchical relationship among the general anxiety vulnerability variable of neuroticism, the specific vulnerability variables of anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty, and variables reflecting specific anxiety foci including panic symptoms, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and generalized anxiety/worry. Questionnaires assessing these variables were administered to a non-clinical sample of 91 first-year psychology students (64.8% women). Path analysis results were highly consistent with the hypothesized hierarchical model. Neuroticism was found to have a significant direct effect on both anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty. Both neuroticism and anxiety sensitivity had direct significant effects on panic symptoms, neuroticism and intolerance of uncertainty both made significant direct contributions to the prediction of worry, and neuroticism made a significant direct contribution to the prediction of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Contrary to the hypothesized model, anxiety sensitivity but not neuroticism uniquely predicted health anxiety. The results of this study provide initial empirical evidence for a hierarchical relationship among general and specific vulnerabilities, and specific anxiety manifestations.     

Intolerance of Uncertainty, Fear of Anxiety, and Adolescent Worry

A 5 year, ten wave longitudinal study of 338 adolescents assessed the association between two forms of cognitive vulnerability (intolerance of uncertainty and fear of anxiety) and worry. Multilevel mediational analyses revealed a bidirectional and reciprocal relation between intolerance of uncertainty and worry in which change in one variable partially explained change in the other. Fear of anxiety and worry also showed evidence of a bidirectional relation, although change in fear of anxiety had a much weaker mediational effect on change in worry than vice versa. The findings show that relative to fear of anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty may play a greater role in the etiology of worry in adolescents.     

Stress and worry: examining intolerance of uncertainty's moderating effect

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), or the way an individual perceives, interprets, and reacts to uncertainty in life, has been frequently investigated in relation to anxiety and worry. While a substantial body of research suggests that individual differences in IU foster stress and anxiety, IU's involvement as a potential moderator in the relation between stressful events and worry has only recently been investigated. Therefore, the present study examined the moderating effect of IU on the relation between daily hassles and worry as well as major life events and worry in a sample of 1092 young adults. Results revealed that IU showed a significant moderation effect in the relation between daily stress and worry. More specifically, when the two factors were examined individually only inhibitory IU served as a moderator between daily stress and worry. While major life events significantly predicted worry, no moderation effect was found for this relation. These findings highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms through which IU impacts worry and contributes to anxiety.     

Attentional control in OCD and GAD: specificity and associations with core cognitive symptoms

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are both defined by excessive negatively-valenced cognitions. Although obsessional thoughts are considered essential to OCD and perseverative worry is considered essential to GAD, these excessive cognitions have been found to co-occur in both disorders. Accordingly, a common diathesis may influence the emergence of excessive thoughts in both disorders. The present study examined deficits in attentional control as a cognitive vulnerability that may contribute to both obsessional thought and perseverative worry. Patients with OCD (n = 30), GAD (n = 29), and non-clinical controls (NCC; n = 29) completed measures of obsessional thoughts, perseverative worry, and attentional control. Deficits in self-reported attentional control were found in both OCD and GAD relative to the NCC. However, attentional control was only related to excessive cognition in the GAD patient group, where deficits were associated with increased perseverative worry. Mediational modeling suggested that trait anxiety mediated the relationship between attentional control and perseverative worry in GAD. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of attentional control in the genesis of excessive cognitions in OCD and GAD are discussed.     

Hoarding behaviors in a large college sample

Hoarding behaviors occur in many clinical syndromes but are most commonly linked to obsessive compulsive disorder. Surprisingly little empirical work has examined the nature of hoarding behaviors despite their association with significant distress and impairment. The current study examined hoarding in 563 unselected college students. Using principal components analysis, we identified four domains of hoarding behaviors as measured by the 26-item Saving Inventory-Revised: Difficulty Discarding, Acquisition Problems, Clutter, and Interference/Distress. All four domains and total hoarding behaviors were strongly related to hoarding beliefs and to obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms. Hoarding behaviors were most strongly correlated with subscales of an OC disorder (OCD) measure assessing hoarding and obsessions and least strongly correlated with the washing subscale. Hoarding behaviors also showed significant, but more modest, correlations with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and worry. However, worry was not found to contribute unique variance to the prediction of hoarding behaviors. Of greatest note, hoarding behaviors showed a surprisingly strong relationship with anxiety sensitivity, similar in magnitude to the relationship between hoarding and OCD symptoms. Results are interpreted and lines of future research are proposed, with particular emphasis on further elucidating the relationship between hoarding behaviors and anxiety sensitivity.     

Worry and rumination: differential associations with anxious and depressive symptoms and coping behavior

Worry and rumination are closely allied cognitive processes that impact on the experience of anxious and depressive symptoms. Using a prospective design, this study examined overlapping and distinct features of worry and rumination in relation to symptoms and coping behavior in a nonclinical sample of Singaporean college students. Worry and rumination were highly correlated, but they retained distinct components that predicted anxious and depressive symptoms differentially within and across time. Specifically, worry was uniquely associated with anxious and depressive symptoms whereas rumination was uniquely related to depression. In comparison to rumination, worry emerged as the dominant cognitive vulnerability factor that predicted increments in symptoms over time. With regards to coping behavior, low perceived coping effectiveness partially mediated the relation between worry and increases in anxiety and depression. Conversely, rumination uniquely predicted higher disengagement from problems, which resulted in further exacerbation of depressive mood. These results demonstrated not only the distinct features of worry and rumination on coping behavior, but also the different coping pathways by which they differentially impact on subsequent symptoms.     

Psychometric validation of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire and the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory: Part I

This article reports on the validation of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ) and Interpretations of Intrusions Inventory (III) developed by the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (OCCWG) to assess the primary beliefs and appraisals considered critical to the pathogenesis of obsessions. A battery of questionnaires that assessed symptoms of anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and worry was administered to 248 outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), 105 non-obsessional anxious patients, 87 non-clinical adults from the community, and 291 undergraduate students. Tests of internal consistency and test-retest reliability indicated that the OBQ and III assessed stable aspects of OC-related thinking. Between-group differences and correlations with existing measures of OC symptoms indicated that the OBQ and III assess core cognitive features of obsessionality. However, the various subscales of the OBQ and III are highly correlated, and both measures evidenced low discriminant validity. The findings are discussed in terms of the relevance and specificity of cognitive constructs like responsibility, control and importance of thoughts, overestimated threat, tolerance of uncertainty and perfectionism for OCD.     

“Cold” Cognitive Control and Attentional Symptoms in Anxiety: Perceptions Versus Performance

Clinically significant anxiety is associated with an array of attentional symptoms (e.g., difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) that are subjectively experienced as severe. However, neuropsychological findings are mixed with respect to the presence of cognitive deficits that can account for these symptoms. Contextualizing predictions from established clinical theories (e.g., Attentional Control Theory) within contemporary, neurobiologically derived models of cognitive control (Dual Mechanisms of Control Theory), the present study investigated the relationship between “cold” proactive and reactive cognitive control, task effort, and subjective attentional symptoms (difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) in a mixed clinical sample of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a comparison sample of healthy controls. Clinical status moderated the relationship between attentional symptoms (attentional focusing and trait worry) and proactive cognitive control response time. Clinical status also moderated the relationship between trait worry and task effort. Higher trait worry was associated with slower proactive control and lower effort in healthy participants, but faster proactive control in clinical participants. Self-reported attentional focusing showed differential validity vis-à-vis proactive control response time in clinical versus healthy participants. Post-hoc conditional effects analysis suggested more accurate self-appraisals in healthy controls, but was not significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Preliminary evidence suggested that differences in task effort in anxious versus healthy adults may relate to subjective attentional symptoms in GAD and OCD.     

Hierarchical model of vulnerabilities for anxiety: replication and extension with a clinical sample

This study served to replicate and extend our previously obtained hierarchical model of the relationships among general anxiety vulnerabilities, specific anxiety vulnerabilities and specific anxiety manifestations including panic symptoms, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and worry. Questionnaires assessing these variables, as well as positive affectivity and depressiveness, were administered to 125 outpatients seeking treatment for panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder. The results, using a clinical sample, were highly consistent with the hierarchical model obtained in the previous study using a student sample. A more elaborate model, based on published theoretical and empirical evidence, was identified and tested, and similar results were obtained. Negative affectivity had expected direct positive effects on all of the specific anxiety and depression manifestations, with the exception of health anxiety, which showed a negative relationship, and OCD symptoms, which showed no relationship. Positive affectivity was found to be a specific risk factor for depression, while intolerance of uncertainty was found to be a specific risk factor for worry and depression. Finally, anxiety sensitivity appears to be a significant risk factor for panic and health anxiety.     

Anxiety and the dynamic self as defined by the prospection and mental simulation of looming future threats

A more dynamic perspective of threats to the self may contribute to an enhanced understanding of the processes that develop and maintain anxiety and thus, potentially inform psychological interventions. This article presents the looming vulnerability model of anxiety, which stresses the threat or risk prospection and dynamic mental simulation of the course of threat. Individuals do not become anxious simply because they picture distant or static possible threats that represent threats to the self. Rather, their anxiety results from interpreting potential threats as dynamic, growing, and approaching. Following a review of a wide range of literature from clinical, personality, and social psychology, we present the looming vulnerability model and its underpinnings in evolution and examine its applications to cognitive vulnerability to anxiety and its therapeutic alleviation [Correction added on 6 August 2019, after first online publication: Abstract text has been corrected to ‘looming vulnerability model’ in two places.]. We also address the associations of the model to other self-related concepts that are involved in anxiety.     

Worry and Rumination in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Ample work has already been conducted on worry and rumination as negative thought processes involved in the etiology of most of the anxiety and mood related disorders. However, minimal effort has been exerted to investigate whether one type of negative thought process can make way for another type of negative thought process, and if so, how it subsequently results in experiencing a host of symptoms reflective of one or the other type of psychological distress. Therefore, the present study was taken up to investigate whether rumination mediates the relationship between worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and between worry and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in two clinical groups. Self-report questionnaires tapping worry, rumination, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) were administered to a clinical sample of 60 patients aged 30–40. Worry, rumination, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) correlated substantially with each other, however, rumination did not mediate the relationship between worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and between worry and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). We also analyzed differences of outcome variables within two clinical groups. These results showed that worry and rumination were significantly different between GAD and OCD groups.     

The association of anxiety,depression, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance in older adults

Emerging research suggests that a relationship exists between the cognitive aspects of anxiety (e.g. worry) and cognitive decline in older adults. The current study examined the association between anxiety, depressive, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance. Participants were 156 older adults enrolled in the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample Study (NKI-RS). Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to determine the unique associations of anxiety, depressive, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance as measured by the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (Penn CNB), the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Worry symptoms were a significant predictor of Penn CNB social cognition, complex cognition, executive function, and episodic memory performance as well as RAVLT immediate and short-delay recall, but not of D-KEFS performance or RAVLT long-delay recall. In contrast, anxiety and depressive symptoms had few unique associations with cognitive performance. Given that worry symptoms have a negative impact on many aspects of neurocognitive performance, they may have utility in predicting and preventing cognitive decline in older adults.     

Hierarchical Model of Vulnerabilities for Anxiety: Replication and Extension with a Clinical Sample

This study served to replicate and extend our previously obtained hierarchical model of the relationships among general anxiety vulnerabilities, specific anxiety vulnerabilities and specific anxiety manifestations including panic symptoms, health anxiety, obsessive‐compulsive symptoms and worry. Questionnaires assessing these variables, as well as positive affectivity and depressiveness, were administered to 125 outpatients seeking treatment for panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive‐compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder. The results, using a clinical sample, were highly consistent with the hierarchical model obtained in the previous study using a student sample. A more elaborate model, based on published theoretical and empirical evidence, was identified and tested, and similar results were obtained. Negative affectivity had expected direct positive effects on all of the specific anxiety and depression manifestations, with the exception of health anxiety, which showed a negative relationship, and OCD symptoms, which showed no relationship. Positive affectivity was found to be a specific risk factor for depression, while intolerance of uncertainty was found to be a specific risk factor for worry and depression. Finally, anxiety sensitivity appears to be a significant risk factor for panic and health anxiety.