The avoidance theory of worry posits that worry is characterized by cognitive avoidance that occurs in response to internal threat-related cognitive and somatic stimuli. This cognitive avoidance and the temporary alleviation of affective and physiological arousal that results from it is theorized to preclude the emotional processing that is theoretically necessary for reduction of anxious symptoms. Although recent laboratory investigations of worry and GAD have contributed to elucidating the basic nature of worry and its role as an avoidance response, few studies have examined the potential role of worry in the maintenance of other anxiety disorders or the specific characteristics of GAD that contribute to its inhibitory role. The proposed experiment seeks to evaluate the effects of worry on levels of self-reported and autonomic arousal during repeated exposures to interoceptive cues by having anxious and nonanxious individuals engage in periods of relaxation, verbal linguistic worry, or imaginal worry and then exposing them to a breath holding procedure. This investigation is an important step in understanding the role of worry as an avoidance response, as well as the effects this avoidance response has on the affective and somatic experience of fear in other anxiety disorders.
| Conybeare, Daniel; Behar, Evelyn; Solomon, Ari et al. (2012) The PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version: reliability, validity, and factor structure in a nonclinical sample. J Clin Psychol 68:699-713 |
