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CATASTROPHIZING ASSESSMENT OF WORRY AND THREAT SCHEMATA AMONG WORRIERS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2000

Martin D. Provencher
Affiliation:
Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Mark H. Freeston
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin, Montréal, Canada
Michel J. Dugas
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
Robert Ladouceur
Affiliation:
Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Several authors have suggested that threat schemata of high worriers may differ from those of less worried individuals with regards to the manner with which information is structured in the Long Term Memory (LTM) or the content of the information stored in the LTM. The present study tested this hypothesis using the catastrophizing interview technique (c.f., Vasey & Borkovec, 1992). Results revealed that high worriers evaluated the likelihood of the occurrence of feared consequences generated for each worry as more likely to actually happen than low worriers did. Second, the ultimate outcome generated in the catastrophizing sequence for a given worry was more severe for high worriers. Finally, high worriers generated ultimate outcomes that were more similar in content, presumably reflecting tightly organized threat schemata. It is argued that activation of these threat schemata in the LTM contributes to the maintenance of worry and anxiety in anxious individuals.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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