An information processing model of anxiety: Automatic and strategic processes

GAD, like other anxiety disorders, involves a process of interacting cognitive, physiological, affective and behavioral systems, which implies that change in one system typically leads to changes in others.

“One possible explanation for this result is that GAD, like other anxiety disorders, involves a process of interacting cognitive, physiological, affective and behavioral systems (Beck & Clark, 1997; Borkovec et al., 2002), which implies that change in one system typically leads to changes in others.”

Cognitive models propose that a maladaptive schema produces biases in how fearful people interpret, attend to, and remember information, keeping threat salient and thereby increasing anxiety and avoidance.

“These models posit that a maladaptive schema leads to biases in the ways fearful individuals interpret, attend to, and remember information, such that threatening information is kept salient, which increases anxiety and promotes avoidance (Beck & Clark, 1997; Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997).”

Biased interpretations are a central element of cognitive models of anxiety and of anxiety-disorder treatment.

“Given that biased interpretations are a critical component of cognitive models of anxiety (e.g., Beck & Clark, 1997) and treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., Barlow, 2002), a simple way to measure height-relevant interpretation biases would provide a useful research and clinical tool.”

These results support cognitive models of anxiety by providing evidence that interpretation biases are related to a broad range of clinically meaningful acrophobic responses.

“These results provide support for cognitive models of anxiety (Beck & Clark, 1997; Williams et al., 1997) by offering evidence that biases in interpretation are related to a broad range of clinically meaningful acrophobic responses.”

Threat-related processing is believed to play a key role in the symptomatology of anxiety and its modulation by anxiolytics.

“Specifically, vigilance to cues of threat or danger is greater in highly anxious individuals compared with low-anxious individuals and healthy controls (Mogg et al. 1994; Bradley et al. 1998; Koster et al. 2005), and threat-related processing is believed to play a key role in the symptomatology of anxiety and its modulation by anxiolytics (Beck and Clark 1997; Mogg and Bradley 1998).”

Beck and Clark propose that anxiety reflects the ineffective use of effortful processing in counteracting threat-related schema-driven processing.

“Beck and Clark propose that anxiety reflects the ineffective use of effortful processing in counteracting threat-related schema-driven processing.”

Strategic reason-based appraisal corresponds to secondary appraisal (or reappraisal) in Beck and Clark (1997), and guided threat evaluation in Bar-Haim et al. (2007).

“Another top-down process is strategic reason-based appraisal, which corresponds to secondary appraisal (or reappraisal) in Beck and Clark (1997), and guided threat evaluation in Bar-Haim et al. (2007).”