Worrying Leads to Reduced Concreteness of Problem Elaborations: Evidence for the Avoidance Theory of Worry

Stöber, Joachim; Tepperwien, Sven; Staak, M

doi:10.1080/10615800008549263

Cited by 77 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Empirical evidence for the reduced-concreteness theory of worry comes from two series of studies with nonclinical student participants (Stöber, 1996;Stöber, Tepperwien, & Staak, 2000). In these studies, participants were presented with the Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992), a widely-used questionnaire for the measurement of nonpathological worry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stöber

Borkovec

2002

Cognitive Therapy and Research

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136

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A sample of clients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) provided descriptions of the two major problems they worried about and of potential negative consequences associated with these problems, once before and once after they received cognitive-behavioral therapy. When descriptions were rated for concreteness and compared to those of normal controls, results showed that untreated GAD clients provided less concrete descriptions of their major worries relative to controls. After successful therapy, problem descriptions of GAD clients showed the same level of concreteness as those of controls. These findings add further support to the reduced-concreteness theory of worry. Moreover, they indicate that concretization of worries may play a prominent role in the reduction of pathological worry.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, all previous studies on worry and reduced concreteness (Stöber, 1996;Stöber et al, 2000) have been conducted with nonclinical student samples. Therefore, the clinical significance of the reduced-concreteness theory of worry still needs to be demonstrated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stöber

Borkovec

2002

Cognitive Therapy and Research

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136

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“…Imagery seems to be no longer allowed due to excessive thought contained in worry process (Borkovec et al, 2004). Given the dualcoding theory, the verbal nature of worry limits accessibility to parallel-processed images, particularly in cases of catastrophic images in which they become less vivid and intrusive (Paivio, 1986;Stöber, 1997;Stöber, Tepperwien, & Staak, 2000). Worry may function as an avoidance response originate from distress triggered by the cues of threat stimuli which may be in forms of fantasy or imagery.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mediating Role of Pathological Worry in Associations Between Dissociative Experiences and Sleep Quality Among Health Staff

Yıldırım¹,

Boysan²,

Yılmaz³

2018

Sleep Hypn

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There has been a growing interest in determining the antecedents of the significant associations between dissociative symptomatology and sleep. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediation effect of a tendency to elicit uncontrollable and excessive worry on the relationship between dissociation and poor sleep quality among non-shift working health staff. Eighty-five participants with a mean age of 31.19 ±7.14 (ranging from 18 to 54) involved within the study. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a demographic questionnaire were administered. Mediation regression models were utilized to evaluate direct and indirect associations between worry, dissociation and sleep quality after controlling for age, gender, marital status, education, prior psychiatric disorders, familial loading and time spent watching TV series in a week. Regression models indicated that direct dose-response relationship between dissociative symptomatology and sleep quality was not statistically significant. However, indirect effects of dissociative symptoms though pathological worry were substantial. More specifically, we found that the DES total, absorption/ imaginative involvement and dissociative amnesia had significant indirect effects on poor sleep quality via excessive worry as measured by the PSWQ. We concluded that dissociative symptoms are indirectly associated with sleep through negative repetitive thoughts such as pathological worry. Therefore, new generation therapeutic approaches particularly mindfulness therapy should be considered in the first-line treatments of sleep disturbance.

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“…Using Pennebaker's expressive writing task, content from the participant's Time 1 writing was analyzed in order to determine his or her processing mode using a continuous measure of the dimension from concrete to abstract (see appendix for scoring manual). Two raters taught with training materials and unaware of the hypotheses of the project read over each Time 1 experimental writing independently and rated the content on its level of concreteness on a 5-point scale (1-abstract, or indistinct, cross-situational, equivocal, unclear, aggregated, 5-concrete, or distinct, situationally specific, unequivocal, clear, singular) (Stöber, Tepperwien, & Staak, 2000).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assessing a participant's spontaneous processing mode could be an important illustration of their coping strategies and overall state of mind. Stöber, Tepperwien, and Staak (2000) originally created the concreteness scale to measure problem elaborations, or problem antecedents and negative consequences. Participants wrote three sentences for each of these two categories and then were rated for their concreteness.…”

Section: Emotional Processing and Copingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional and Cognitive Coping in Relationship Dissolution

Wrape

Jenkins

Callahan

et al. 2016

J of College Counseling

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Dissolution of a romantic relationship can adversely affect functioning among college students and represents one primary reason for seeking campus counseling. This study examined the associations among common coping strategies and distress following relationship dissolution. Avoidance and repetitive negative thinking (RNT) were significantly associated with distress, and gender was found to moderate the relationship between RNT and distress. Findings suggest that college counselors should consider emotional coping strategies following relationship dissolutions.

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Worrying Leads to Reduced Concreteness of Problem Elaborations: Evidence for the Avoidance Theory of Worry

Cited by 77 publications

References 20 publications

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The Mediating Role of Pathological Worry in Associations Between Dissociative Experiences and Sleep Quality Among Health Staff

Emotional and Cognitive Coping in Relationship Dissolution

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