Abstract
A second generation of cognitive-behavioral models of GAD have extended Beck’s model in several critical directions. These directions involve placing greater emphasis on understanding the role of compensatory self-protective processes such as worry, and more recently, of affective avoidance, as well as the role of emotion dysregulation. They also include trying to better understand the threat appraisals and fears of uncertainty that may be implicated in the disorder. The present Special Issue presents several papers that illustrate these new approaches. This Introduction to the Special Issue briefly considers the interrelation of these models in a broader theoretical context and suggests in outline several future research directions for developing a better and more articulated understanding of the disorder.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. (1985). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A Cognitive perspective. New York: Basic Books.
Beck, A. T., & Clark, D. A. (1997). An information processing model of anxiety: Automatic and strategic processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 49–58.
Beck, A. T., Laude, R., & Bohnert, M. (1974), Ideational components of anxiety neurosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 319–325.
Beck, R., & Perkins, T. S. (2001). Cognitive content-specificity for anxiety and depression: A meta-analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 651–663.
Bell, J. (1995). Generalized anxiety disorders. In J. L. Jacobson & A. M. Jacobson (Eds.), Psychiatric Secrets (pp. 88–91). Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus.
Borkovec, T. D., Ray, W. J., & Stoeber, J. (1998). Worry: A cognitive phenomenon intimately linked to affective, physiological, and interpersonal behavioral processes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 22, 561–576.
Borkovec, T. D., Newman, M. G., Pincus, A. L., & Lytle, R. (2002). A component analysis of cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder and the role of interpersonal problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 288–298.
Coles, M. E., & Heimberg, R. G. (2002). Memory biases in the anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 587–627.
Dugas, M. J., Hedayati, M., Karavidas, A., Buhr, K., Francis, K., & Phillips, N. A. (2004). Intolerance of Uncertainty and Information Processing. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 57–70.
Fisher, P. L., & Durham, R. A. (1999). Recovery rates in generalized anxiety disorder following psychological therapy: An analysis of clinically significant change in STAI-T across outcome studies since 1990. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1425–1434.
Freeston, M. H., Dugas, M. J., & Ladouceur, R. (1996). Thoughts, images, worry and anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 265–273.
Gilbert, P. (2001). Evolutionary approaches to psychopathology: The role of natural defenses. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 35, 17–27.
Kessler. (in press). The effects of chronic medical conditions on work impairment. In A. S. Rossi (Ed.), Caring and doing for others: Social responsibility in the domains of family, work, and community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
MacLeod, C., & E.Rutherford Information-processing approaches: Assessing the selective functioning of attention, interpretation, and retrieval (2004). In R. H. Heimberg, C. L. Turk, D. S. Mennin, (Eds.), Generalized anxiety disorder: Advances in research and practice. New York: Guilford Press.
Mennin, D. S., Heimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L., & Fresco, D. M. (2002). Applying an emotion regulation framework to integrative approaches to generalized anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 85–90.
Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2004). Attentional bias in Generalised Anxiety Disorder versus Depressive Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 29–45.
Mogotsi, M., Kaminer, D., & Stein, D. J. (2000). Quality of life in the anxiety disorders. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 8, 271–282.
Riskind, J. H. (1997). Looming vulnerability to threat: A cognitive paradigm for anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 386–404.
Riskind, J. H., Williams, N. L., Gessner, T., Chrosniak, L. D., & Cortina, J. (2000). The looming maladaptive style: Anxiety, danger, and schematic processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 837–852.
Riskind, J. H., & Williams, N. L. (2005). A unique vulnerability common to all anxiety disorders: The looming maladaptive style. In L. B. Alloy & J. H. Riskind (Eds.), Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Roemer, L. Salters, K., Raffa, S. D., & Orisillo, S. M. (2004). Fear and avoidance of internal experiences in GAD: Preliminary tests of a conceptual model. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 71–88.
Roemer, L., & Orsillo, S. M. (2002). Expanding our conceptualization of and treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: Integrating mindfulness/acceptance-based approaches with existing cognitive behavioral models. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 8, 54–68.
Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., Luterek, J. A., Mennin, D. S., & Fresco, D. M. (2004). Delineating emotion regulation deficits in generalized anxiety disorder: A comparison with social anxiety disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 89–106.
Wells, A. (2004). The metacognitive model of GAD: Assessment of meta-worry and relationship with DSM-IV Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 107–121.
Williams, N. L., & Riskind, J. H. (2004). Adult romantic attachment and cognitive vulnerabilities to anxiety and depression: Examining the interpersonal basis of vulnerability models. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 18, 2–24.
Wittchen, H. U., & Hoyer, J. (2001). Generalized anxiety disorder: Nature and course and course. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62, 15–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Riskind, J.H. Cognitive Mechanisms in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Second Generation of Theoretical Perspectives. Cogn Ther Res 29, 1–5 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-005-1644-0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-005-1644-0