Fear of the unknown as a mechanism of the inverse relation between life meaning and psychological distress

Background and Objectives: Although there is accumulating evidence for an inverse relation between life meaning and psychological distress, little is known about the mechanisms of this relation. Using cross-sectional, observational methods, this research examined fear of uncertainty as one potential mechanism. Design and Methods: Study 1 (N = 141) was completed with a convenience sample, a unidimensional measure of life meaning, and general measures of anxiety and depression. Study 2 (N = 152) was completed with a sample prescreened for anxiety, a multidimensional measure of life meaning, and clinical measures of anxiety and depression. Results: The results from both studies generally showed an inverse relation between life meaning and psychological distress. Study 2 further indicated that these relations were stronger for the meaning subscale of perceiving life as coherent/comprehensible than the subscales assessing whether participants’ lives are perceived as purposeful or significant. Mediation analyses in both studies showed indirect effects of life meaning on psychological distress through fear of uncertainty. Conclusions: These findings support and extend previous research by showing that (i) meaning-as-comprehension may be particularly important in regards to psychological distress, and (ii) fear of uncertainty may mediate the inverse relation between meaning and measures of anxiety and depression

Responding to uncertain threat:A potential mediator for the effect of mindfulness on anxiety

Mindfulness-based interventions have gained extensive support for their application in the treatment of anxiety. However, their mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Excessive reactivity to uncertainty plays a central role in anxiety, and may represent a mechanism for the effect of mindfulness on anxiety, as mindfulness training fosters an open and accepting stance towards all aspects of experience. The present study sought to investigate both (i) self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU) as well as (ii) physiological and subjective responding to uncertain threat in a threat-of-shock paradigm, the NPU-threat test, as mediators for the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety in a cross-sectional study of healthy participants (N = 53). The results indicated that IU mediated the effect of mindfulness on some anxiety symptoms. In contrast, scores of physiological as well as subjective responses to uncertain threat from the NPU-threat test were largely unrelated to mindfulness, anxiety, or the IU self-report measure. The results provide initial evidence that reactions to uncertainty may play a role in the mindfulness-anxiety relationship and suggest that studies are needed to address how methodological variations of the NPU-threat test affect perceived levels of uncertainty and uncertainty-related anxiety

A preliminary comparison of fundamental fears related to anxiety

Correlational study simultaneously including three candidate fundamental fears for the prediction of anxiet

A preliminary comparison of fundamental fears related to anxiety

In the quest to uncover lower order processes that underlie anxiety disorders, researchers have proposed a number of fundamental fears, which are thought to represent fears of inherently aversive stimuli that can explain a number of higher order constructs such as more specific fears. In a recent theoretical article, Carleton narrowed the list of potential fundamental fears down to three candidates: fear of death, fear of pain, and fear of the unknown. Carleton proposes that fear of the unknown represents the primary fundamental fear, suggesting that unlike the other two, fear of the unknown is inherently aversive and logically irreducible. The present study represents an initial empirical investigation of this hypothesis. In a cross-sectional study (N = 373), fear of death, fear of pain, and fear of the unknown were assessed as simultaneous predictors of anxiety. Results showed that fear of the unknown was indeed the strongest unique predictor, while fear of pain also uniquely predicted anxiety, although to a lesser extent. While the results suggest that fear of the unknown may indeed be the most fundamental fear, the need for conceptual clarification and empirical work using diverse measures is discussed