The Information-Processing Approach to Emotion Research

Abstract

Abstract The past two decades have witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in cognitive aspects of emotional vulnerability. Stimulated initially by the work of clinical theorists such as Aaron Beck (Beck, 1976; Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1985) and cognitive psychologists such as Gordon Bower (1981), much of this research has been designed to address predictions concerning the selective processing of emotional information. The general idea under experimental scrutiny most often has been that heightened levels of susceptibility to negative emotions, such as anxiety or depression, reflect idiosyncratic processing biases that operate to favor the encoding and retrieval of negative information and to yield negative interpretations of ambiguity. In order to objectively test such hypotheses, many researchers now have systematically mined the rich potential offered by cognitive-experimental psychology, drawing on and creatively adapting established methodologies for assessing selective encoding, interpretation, and memory. This line of investigation has greatly enhanced our understanding of the patterns of biased cognition that underpin individual differences in emotional vulnerability.