Abstract
Chronic, excessive, and uncontrollable worry is the defining characteristic of generalised anxiety disorder. Worry largely consists of verbal thought and it has been postulated that this predominance of verbal thought in worry may contribute to its perseveration. In an investigation of this issue, high worriers were trained to engage in either imagery or verbal processing. Mentation was sampled before and after a five-minute period of worry during which participants engaged in either imagery of the worry topic or verbal processing of the worry topic. Verbal worry resulted in a significant increase in negative intrusions, consistent with previous research. Furthermore, imagery was associated with a decrease in negative intrusions. The results support the theory that the predominantly verbal nature of worry may be responsible for the uncontrollability and maintenance of worry.
Highlights
Worry is a primary characteristic of anxiety, and has been described as a cognitive process ‘‘concerned with future events where there is uncertainty about the outcome, [but] the future being thought about is a negative one’’ (Dugas, 2004, p.5)
To ensure that participants engaged in the designated mentation style, they completed two visual analogue scales at the end of the session as a manipulation check: one scale indicated the percentage of time they had engaged in verbal processing, and the other indicating the percentage of time they had engaged in imagery during the worry phase
There was a significant time by group interaction, F(1, 57) 1⁄4 15.38, p < .001, f 1⁄4 .42, indicating that groups changed differently over time, with the verbal group showing a greater number of negative thought intrusions and the imagery group showing a reduced number of negative intrusions following the instructed worry period
Summary
Worry is a primary characteristic of anxiety, and has been described as a cognitive process ‘‘concerned with future events where there is uncertainty about the outcome, [but] the future being thought about is a negative one’’ (Dugas, 2004, p.5). Individuals with high levels of worry, both with and without a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), experience worry as persistent, pervasive and uncontrollable. The extent of uncontrollability of worry is one feature that distinguishes high worriers and individuals with GAD from those without excessive worry (Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & DePree, 1983). High worriers instructed to worry have a greater number of subsequent negative intrusions during an attention task than non-worriers (Borkovec et al, 1983; Pruzinsky & Borkovec, 1990; York, Borkovec, Vasey, & Stern, 1987).
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