Worry, procrastination, and perfectionism: Differentiating amount of worry, pathological worry, anxiety, and depression

This study investigates features that differentiate worry from somatic anxiety and depression. Theoretical models of the worry process suggest that worry is closely related to procrastination. In addition, research on worry and elevated evidence requirements proposes a relationship between worry and perfectionism. Perfectionism, however, is multidimensional in nature. Moreover, previous research has linked procrastination and perfectionism mainly to anxiety and depression. Therefore, the relationship among worry, procrastination, and dimensions of perfectionism was investigated irt a sample of 180 students, controlling for anxiety and depression. Results show that worry had substantial correlations with procrastination and perfectionism, particularly with perfectionist concern over mistakes and doubts. Moreover, worry was related to parental criticism and expectations, but unrelated to excessively high personal standards. instead high-worriers reported to lower standards under stress. Partial correlations indicated that these correlations were specific for amount of worry, thus differentiating amount of worry, pathological worry, anxiety, and depression

Worry, problem elaboration and suppression of imagery: the role of concreteness

Both lay concept and scientific theory claim that worry may be helpful for defining and analyzing problems. Recent studies, however, indicate that worrisome problem elaborations are less concrete than worry-free problem elaborations. This challenges the problem solving view of worry because abstract problem analyses are unlikely to lead to concrete problem solutions. Instead the findings support the avoidance theory of worry which claims that worry suppresses aversive imagery. Following research findings in the dual-coding framework [Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston; Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: a dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.], the present article proposes that reduced concreteness may play a central role in the understanding of worry. First, reduced concreteness can explain how worry reduces imagery. Second, it offers an explanation why worrisome problem analyses are unlikely to arrive at solutions. Third, it provides a key for the understanding of worry maintenance

Deportation Worry, Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Trajectories, and Incident Hypertension: A Community-Based Cohort Study.

Background Worry about deportation has been associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors in cross-sectional research. No research has evaluated this association longitudinally or examined the association between deportation worry and incident cardiovascular disease outcomes. Methods and Results We used data from an ongoing community-based cohort of 572 women primarily of Mexican origin. We estimated associations between self-reported deportation worry and: (1) trajectories of blood pressure, body mass index, and waist circumference with linear mixed models, and (2) incident hypertension with Cox proportional hazards models. Nearly half (48%) of women reported "a lot," 24% reported "moderate," and 28% reported "not too much" deportation worry. Higher worry at baseline was associated with nonlinear systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure trajectories. For example, compared with not too much worry, a lot of worry was associated with a faster initial increase (β, interaction with linear year term: 4.10; 95% CI, 1.17-7.03) followed by a faster decrease in systolic blood pressure (β, interaction with quadratic year term: -0.80; 95% CI, -1.55 to -0.06). There was weak evidence of an association between deportation worry and diastolic blood pressure and no association with body mass index, waist circumference, or pulse pressure trajectories. Among 408 women without baseline hypertension, reporting a lot (hazard ratio, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.15-4.10) and moderate deportation worry (hazard ratio, 2.48; 95% CI, 1.17-4.30) were each associated with greater risk of incident hypertension compared with reporting not too much worry. Conclusions Deportation worry may contribute to widening disparities in some cardiovascular disease risk factors and outcomes over time

Weekly assessment of worry: an adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for monitoring changes during treatment

An adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) [Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L. and Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 487-495.] for weekly assessment of worry was evaluated in a brief treatment study. Cognitive restructuring techniques were taught to 28 nonclinical high-worriers, 14 of whom served as a control group in a lagged waiting-list design. Results showed that the Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Past Week (PSWQ-PW) was highly reliable and substantially valid in the assessment of both (a) weekly status of worry and (b) treatment-related changes in worry: average Cronbach's alpha was 0.91; average convergent correlation with a past-week adaptation of the Worry Domains Questionnaire [Tallis, F., Eysenck, M. W. and Mathews, A. (1992). A questionnaire for the measurement of nonpathological worry. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 161-168.] was 0.63 and pre-post improvement on PSWQ-PW showed a 0.71 correlation with the Questionnaire of Changes in Experiencing and Behavior [Zielke, M. and Kopf-Mehnert, C. (1978). Veränderungsfragebogen des Erlebens und Verhaltens. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Test Gesellschaft.]. It is concluded that the PSWQ-PW is a useful instrument for monitoring pathological worry in experimental and applied settings

Effect of health worry on processing of health information, behavioral intentions, and behavior

Although correlational studies show a relationship between worry about health concerns and higher rates of self-protective behavior, there has been no experimental research supporting the relationship and little research on the mechanisms by which worry might lead to health behaviors. This study experimentally induced a state of worry about influenza in undergraduate college students (N = 165), and examined their intentions to get a flu shot, systematic processing of a message about influenza, and vaccination behavior. The study had four main findings. First, the worry induction was successful in inducing worry about influenza. Second, participants in the experimental (worry) group reported significantly greater intentions to get a flu shot when compared with the intentions of the control group. Group differences in vaccination behavior were in the predicted direction, but were not significant. Third, participants in the experimental group had significantly higher rates of systematic processing of the flu message. However, systematic processing did not mediate the relationship between worry about the flu and intention to get a flu shot. The results support the role of emotion in health behavior decisions and introduce an effective experimental technique for inducing worry about a health condition

Cognitive Predictors of Worry in a Non-Clinical Population

Although worry is considered to be the key feature of generalised anxiety disorder, it has its own unique properties. The study aimed to investigate the extent to which intolerance of uncertainty, poor problem solving confidence, positive beliefs about worry and negative thinking style, predicted worry, both individually and in combination, once the effects of trait anxiety were removed. Ninety-six university students participated in the study by completing a battery of questionnaires. Results, showed trait anxiety to be the strongest predictor. Further, negative thinking, intolerance of uncertainty and positive beliefs about worry contributed to the prediction of worry individually, beyond the effects of trait anxiety. However, when examined collectively, intolerance of uncertainty and a negative thinking were shown to be superior predictors of worry. The findings support the cognitive processing models of worry and generalised anxiety. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to future research

Patterns of situational appraisal in experiences of worry and anxiety

Three studies investigating differences in people's appraisals of worry and anxiety situations are presented. First, data from a study by Reisenzein & Spielhofer (1994) were reanalyzed. Second, two further studies were conducted to replicate the findings of the reanalysis and to explore whether any additional appraisal dimensions were relevant for a differentiation of worry and anxiety situations. In sum, results showed that appraisals associated with situations in which worry and anxiety were experienced differed on eight appraisal dimensions. Compared to experiences of anxiety, experiences of worry were more often associated with positive self-evaluation, positive social-relationship evaluation, feelings of closeness, and sentiments of importance, and less often associated with feelings of inferiority. Moreover, in worry experiences, focus was often not on the self, but on other persons. Finally, with respect to temporal dimensions, worry situations were less often associated with notions of suddenness and momentariness than anxiety situations. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to models of emotional appraisal and research on worry and generalized anxiety disorder

Association between attention and heart rate fluctuations in pathological worriers

Recent data suggests that several psychopathological conditions are associated with alterations in the variability of behavioral and physiological responses. Pathological worry, defined as the cognitive representation of a potential threat, has been associated with reduced variability of heart beat oscillations (i.e., decreased heart rate variability; HRV) and lapses of attention indexed by reaction times (RTs). Clinical populations with attention deficit show RTs oscillation around 0.05 and 0.01 Hz when performing a sustained attention task. We tested the hypothesis that people who are prone to worry do it in a predictable oscillating pattern revealed through recurrent lapses in attention and concomitant oscillating HRV. Sixty healthy young adults (50% women) were recruited: 30 exceeded the clinical cut-off on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; High-Worry, HW); the remaining 30 constituted the Low-Worry (LW) group. After a diagnostic assessment, participants performed two 15-min sustained attention tasks, interspersed by a standardized worry-induction procedure. RTs, HRV and moods were assessed. The analyses of the frequency spectrum showed that the HW group presents a significant higher and constant peak of RTs oscillation around 0.01 Hz (period 100 s) after the induction of worry, in comparison with their baseline and with the LW group that was not responsive to the induction procedure. Physiologically, the induction significantly reduced high-frequency HRV and such reduction was associated with levels of self-reported worry. Results are coherent with the oscillatory nature of the default mode network (DMN) and further confirm an association between cognitive rigidity and autonomic nervous system inflexibility

Spoken Thesaurus: Worry

The Hindi Thesaurus addresses such questions in a series of lively, unscripted Hindi-medium conversations about groups of words of related meaning. Concentrating on selected mainstream words and phrases, we help you to broaden your active vocabulary by encountering styles of language appropriate for everyday speech. The conversations are between Rupert Snell (Hindi teacher and perpetual Hindi learner) and Neha Ladha (mother-tongue speaker of Hindi). Glossaries for each podcast can be read online or downloaded in PDF format. (Length: 7:51)Asian Studie