Intolerance of uncertainty mediates the relationship between adult attachment and worry

Wright, Carmel J.; Clark, Gavin I.; Rock, Adam J.; Coventry, William L.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.039

Cited by 23 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Moreover, cognitive distress in response to uncertainty was previously associated with slower reaction time (Jackson, Nelson, & Hajcak, 2016 ). It should be noted that intolerance of uncertainty was not assessed in the current study via a direct measure and is not confined to anxiety and worrying (Shihata, McEvoy, Mullan, & Carleton, 2016 ; Wright et al, 2017 ). We do, however, suspect that it might have played a more significant role in the anxious subgroup due to their increased fear of being negatively evaluated by peers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Further, their increased fear of negative evaluation might have increased their cognitive distress in the face of this uncertainty. Indeed, “intolerance of uncertainty” was found to be an important mediator between attachment-related anxiety and worrying (Wright, Clark, Rock, & Coventry, 2017 ) and has been shown to play an important role in anxiety and chronic worrying (Dugas, Buhr, & Ladouceur, 2004 ). Moreover, cognitive distress in response to uncertainty was previously associated with slower reaction time (Jackson, Nelson, & Hajcak, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Kortink

Weeda

Crowley

et al. 2018

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Monitoring social threat is essential for maintaining healthy social relationships, and recent studies suggest a neural alarm system that governs our response to social rejection. Frontal-midline theta (4–8 Hz) oscillatory power might act as a neural correlate of this system by being sensitive to unexpected social rejection. Here, we examined whether frontal-midline theta is modulated by individual differences in personality constructs sensitive to social disconnection. In addition, we examined the sensitivity of feedback-related brain potentials (i.e., the feedback-related negativity and P3) to social feedback. Sixty-five undergraduate female participants (mean age = 19.69 years) participated in the Social Judgment Paradigm, a fictitious peer-evaluation task in which participants provided expectancies about being liked/disliked by peer strangers. Thereafter, they received feedback signaling social acceptance/rejection. A community structure analysis was employed to delineate personality profiles in our data. Results provided evidence of two subgroups: one group scored high on attachment-related anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, whereas the other group scored high on attachment-related avoidance and low on fear of negative evaluation. In both groups, unexpected rejection feedback yielded a significant increase in theta power. The feedback-related negativity was sensitive to unexpected feedback, regardless of valence, and was largest for unexpected rejection feedback. The feedback-related P3 was significantly enhanced in response to expected social acceptance feedback. Together, these findings confirm the sensitivity of frontal midline theta oscillations to the processing of social threat, and suggest that this alleged neural alarm system behaves similarly in individuals that differ in personality constructs relevant to social evaluation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.3758/s13415-018-0589-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Kortink

Weeda

Crowley

et al. 2018

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Worry reflects a “cognitive phenomenon concerned with future events where there is uncertainty about the outcome, the future being thought about is a negative one, and this is accompanied by feelings of anxiety” (Macleod, Williams, & Bekerian, 1991, p. 478). Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance have been demonstrated to display positive associations with worry (Wright, Clark, Rock, & Coventry, 2017). The premise that attachment insecurity leads individuals to experience concerns regarding negative future outcomes (e.g., aversive relationship outcomes, inability to deal with distress) suggests that insecure attachment orientations (i.e., elevated attachment anxiety and/or attachment avoidance) would predispose individuals to heightened worry (Simonelli et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Attachment anxiety has been suggested to predispose individuals to IU, which in turn would predispose individuals to higher levels of worry (Wright et al, 2017). Indeed, it has been suggested that insecurely attached individuals will appraise ambiguity/uncertainty within interpersonal relationships as indicating threat, leading to negative recurrent thoughts concerning such negative outcomes (Campbell et al, 2005; Collins et al, 1996; Wright et al, 2017). Furthermore, the hyperactivating strategies which characterise individuals with high attachment anxiety may be conceptualised as reflecting efforts to minimise uncertainty concerning potential threats within relationships (Wright et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adult attachment, worry and reassurance seeking: Investigating the role of intolerance of uncertainty

Clark

Rock

Clark

et al. 2020

Clinical Psychologist

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Background The adult attachment dimension of attachment anxiety has been demonstrated to be associated with a variety of anxiety symptomology, including worry, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and reassurance seeking. A variety of research has indicated that IU is associated with level of worry and reassurance seeking. The relationships between attachment anxiety, worry, IU and threat‐related reassurance seeking have not been subject to investigation. The present article reports the results of an investigation of these variables within a community sample. Methods Three‐hundred and twenty‐eight participants were recruited to complete an online survey in which participants completed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale‐Revised, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and the Threat‐related Reassurance Seeking Scale. Results Attachment anxiety, IU and worry were correlated with threat‐related reassurance seeking. Consistent with previous research, IU was found to mediate the relationship between attachment anxiety and worry. IU and worry were found to be serial‐multiple mediators in the relationship between attachment anxiety and threat‐related reassurance seeking. Conclusions The results of the study suggest IU is likely to play a key role in the relationship between attachment anxiety and worry, as well as the relationship between attachment anxiety and threat‐related reassurance seeking.

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“…It is also important to note that the study sample was comprised of 84% female participants. Equivalent gender skews have been observed in a variety of online psychology studies conducted in Australia, which have similarly involved the recruitment of self-selecting volunteer participants [ 56 – 57 ]. The fact that similar gender ratios have been observed in a variety of studies may infer that this over-representation of female participants may not be due to the study topic or the variables assessed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of affect labelling on responses to aversive flying-cues

2018

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Individuals with flying phobia experience increases in subjective anxiety in response to flying-related cues. However, the cognitive processes that contribute to cue-reactive anxiety in individuals with flying-related anxiety remain poorly understood. Preliminary research suggests that changes in visual imagery and volitional control may contribute to this cue-reactive anxiety. Engaging in affect labelling during exposure therapy has been shown to reduce cue-reactive anxiety in individuals with fears relating to a variety of stimuli but has not been investigated in the fear of flying. The present study recruited 110 participants with a range of flying-related anxiety scores to complete an online cue-reactivity experiment. The study sought to evaluate whether an aversive flying cue triggered changes in imagery, volitional control and anxiety, and whether changes in imagery and volitional control predicted level of cue-reactive anxiety. Participants were randomly allocated to an affect labelling or non-affect labelling condition to additionally assess whether engaging in labelling one’s emotion following exposure to an aversive flying cue would attenuate cue-reactive changes in anxiety relative to a group who did not. Significant cue-reactive changes in anxiety, and volitional control were observed from neutral to aversive flying cue were observed. After accounting for the effects of flying anxiety severity, only volitional control significantly improved the prediction of cue-reactive anxiety. Participants in the affect labelling condition reported significantly smaller increases in anxiety than the non-affect labelling group following exposure to the aversive flight cue. This is the first study to indicate affect labelling may help to regulate aspects of cue-reactive anxiety in response to aversive flying stimuli.

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Intolerance of uncertainty mediates the relationship between adult attachment and worry

Cited by 23 publications

References 34 publications

Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Adult attachment, worry and reassurance seeking: Investigating the role of intolerance of uncertainty

The impact of affect labelling on responses to aversive flying-cues

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