TY - JOUR
T1 - The nature of worry in generalized anxiety disorder
T2 - A predominance of thought activity
AU - Borkovec, T. D.
AU - Inz, Jonathan
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknoi&dgemenrs-This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant MH-39172 to the first author. Appreciation is expressed to Teresa Elliott and Thomas Meyer who served as experimenters and to Mildred Hopkins for her data management of the project.
PY - 1990
Y1 - 1990
N2 - Indirect evidence suggests that worry primarily involves thought, rather than imaginal, activity, a distinction within cognitive process that is potentially crucial to some theories of anxiety maintenance and modification. The present study constrasted the frequencies of reporting the presence of thoughts and images among generalized anxiety disorder clients and matched, nonanxious control subjects during a self-relaxation period and a worry period. Repetition of the assessment was conducted with clients after they completed 12 sessions of therapy. Sampling of mentation during these periods revealed that (a) during relaxation, nonanxious subjects reported a predominance of imagery whereas clients show equal amounts of thought and imagery, (b) nonanxious subjects shifted to a predominance of thought during worry, and (c) clients showed a normalization of thought and image frequencies after successful therapy. This combination of results suggests that worry is principally thought-like in content. The speculation is offered that worry may function as motivated avoidance of emotional imagery and its attendant somatic sensations.
AB - Indirect evidence suggests that worry primarily involves thought, rather than imaginal, activity, a distinction within cognitive process that is potentially crucial to some theories of anxiety maintenance and modification. The present study constrasted the frequencies of reporting the presence of thoughts and images among generalized anxiety disorder clients and matched, nonanxious control subjects during a self-relaxation period and a worry period. Repetition of the assessment was conducted with clients after they completed 12 sessions of therapy. Sampling of mentation during these periods revealed that (a) during relaxation, nonanxious subjects reported a predominance of imagery whereas clients show equal amounts of thought and imagery, (b) nonanxious subjects shifted to a predominance of thought during worry, and (c) clients showed a normalization of thought and image frequencies after successful therapy. This combination of results suggests that worry is principally thought-like in content. The speculation is offered that worry may function as motivated avoidance of emotional imagery and its attendant somatic sensations.
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U2 - 10.1016/0005-7967(90)90027-G
DO - 10.1016/0005-7967(90)90027-G
M3 - Article
C2 - 2183759
AN - SCOPUS:0025264882
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 28
SP - 153
EP - 158
JO - Behaviour Research and Therapy
JF - Behaviour Research and Therapy
IS - 2
ER -