Abstract
One puzzle in high worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the heterogeneity in the level of autonomic arousal symptoms seen among affected individuals. While current models agree that worry persists, in part, because it fosters avoidance of unpleasant internal experiences, they disagree as to whether worry does so by suppressing activation of autonomic arousal or by fostering persistent autonomic hyperarousal. Our Cognitive Control Model predicts that which pattern of autonomic arousal occurs depends on whether or not a worrier has sufficient cognitive control capacity to worry primarily in a verbal versus imagery-based manner. Because this model has been supported by only one study to date, the present study sought to replicate and extend that study’s findings. Results from an online survey in an unselected sample of over 900 college students provide further support for our model’s central tenet and initial support for its prediction that higher effortful control is associated with a higher percentage of verbal thought during worry. Finally, we report tentative evidence that autonomic arousal symptoms in worry and GAD vary as a function of individual differences in cognitive control capacity because higher capacity is linked to a greater predominance of verbal thought during worry.
Highlights
Excessive and uncontrollable worry is a common form of perseverative cognition that, at its most severe levels is the hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
Given that EC moderated the link between the Worry and Anxiety Questionnaire (WAQ) and percentage of thoughts, we examined whether this effect was related to autonomic arousal symptoms
It offers additional evidence by providing a replication of Vasey et al.’s (2016) findings that cognitive control capacity acts as a moderator to explain the heterogeneity in level of autonomic arousal associated with worry and GAD, especially in the pathological worry range
Summary
Excessive and uncontrollable worry is a common form of perseverative cognition that, at its most severe levels is the hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Whereas the CognAv model cannot account for findings that worry and GAD are characterized by high levels of autonomic arousal, Cognitive Control Model of Worry neither can the ContrAv model accommodate the opposite pattern To resolve this conflict, Vasey et al (2016) recently proposed and tested an integrative model, which posits that only when worriers have sufficient cognitive control capacity to suppress intrusive threatening imagery and shift instead to verbal processing of threat can they avoid the autonomic arousal that such images would otherwise elicit. Absent such capacity, worry will instead be characterized by heightened autonomic arousal. Using another sample of over 900 individuals, the current study sought to replicate and extend these findings to show why cognitive control capacity matters
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