A cognitive model of pathological worry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2012.06.007Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

We present an evidence-based model of pathological worry in which worry arises from an interaction between involuntary (bottom-up) processes, such as habitual biases in attention and interpretation favouring threat content, and voluntary (top-down) processes, such as attentional control. At a pre-conscious level, these processes influence the competition between mental representations when some correspond to the intended focus of attention and others to threat distracters. Processing biases influence the probability of threat representations initially intruding into awareness as negative thoughts. Worry in predominantly verbal form then develops, influenced by conscious processes such as attempts to resolve the perceived threat and the redirection of attentional control resources to worry content, as well as the continuing influence of habitual processing biases. After describing this model, we present evidence for each component process and for their causal role in pathological worry, together with implications for new directions in the treatment of pathological worry.

Highlights

► We describe an evidence-based cognitive model of pathological worry. ► Factors involved include processing biases, misdirected control and verbal encoding. ► Evidence shows that pathological worry is reduced by modifying processing biases. ► We predict that optimal results will depend on addressing each factor involved.

Keywords

Worry
Emotional processing biases
Attention
Interpretation
Attentional control

Cited by (0)