Nathan L. Williams

The Disgust Scale: Item Analysis, Factor Structure, and Suggestions for Refinement.

In the 4 studies presented (N = 1,939), a converging set of analyses was conducted to evaluate the item adequacy, factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Disgust Scale (DS; J. Haidt, C. McCauley, & P. Rozin, 1994). The results suggest that 7 items (i.e., Items 2, 7, 8, 21, 23, 24, and 25) should be considered for removal from the DS. Secondary to removing the items, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the DS taps 3 dimensions of disgust: Core Disgust, Animal Reminder Disgust, and Contamination-Based Disgust. Women scored higher than men on the 3 disgust dimensions. Structural modeling provided support for the specificity of the 3-factor model, as Core Disgust and Contamination-Based Disgust were significantly predictive of obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) concerns, whereas Animal Reminder Disgust was not. Results from a clinical sample indicated that patients with OCD washing concerns scored significantly higher than patients with OCD without washing concerns on both Core Disgust and Contamination-Based Disgust, but not on Animal Reminder Disgust. These findings are discussed in the context of the refinement of the DS to promote a more psychometrically sound assessment of disgust sensitivity.

Phenomenological Characteristics of Attentional Biases Towards Threat: A Critical Review.

Although research has consistently revealed the presence of a general attentional bias towards threat, empirical and theoretical ambiguity exists in determining whether attentional biases are comprised of facilitated attention to threat, difficulty in disengagement from threat, or both, as well as whether attentional biases reflect automatic or strategic processes. This paper reviews empirical investigations across four common assessment tasks: the Stroop (masked and unmasked), dot probe, visual search, and the Posner tasks. Although the review finds inconsistencies both within and between assessment tasks, the evidence suggests that attentional biases towards threat are comprised of each of the phenomenological characteristics addressed in this paper. Contemporary theoretical models of attentional biases in anxiety are summarized and critically reviewed in light of the current evidence. Suggestions for future research are addressed, including a need to investigate the psychometric properties of the assessment tasks, to utilize consistent theoretically driven operationalizations of attentional biases, and to provide a temporal description of the characteristics of attentional biases towards threat.

Cognitive vulnerabilities to the development of PTSD: a review of four vulnerabilities and the proposal of an integrative vulnerability model.

While some individuals develop PTSD subsequent to traumatic experiences, many individuals resume prior functioning naturally. Diathesis-stress models suggest that stable individual differences present in individuals prior to trauma may serve as vulnerability factors to symptom development. The high levels of comorbidity and symptom similarity suggest that established vulnerability factors for anxiety and depression may also serve as vulnerability factors for PTSD. The examination of multiple vulnerability factors simultaneously may increase understanding of the etiology of PTSD and comorbid post-trauma symptomatology and account for a greater percentage of variance in PTSD symptoms. In addition, the vulnerability factors may be related to distinct sets of symptoms, with vulnerabilities predicting the PTSD symptoms most similar to their associated disorders. Research examining the relations between attributional style, rumination, anxiety sensitivity, and the looming cognitive style and the development of PTSD after trauma exposure is reviewed and suggestions for future research are provided.

The looming maladaptive style : Anxiety, danger, and schematic processing

The importance of cognitive styles as psychological antecedents of psychopathology has gained increasing acceptance over the past 2 decades. Although ample research has explored cognitive styles that confer vulnerability to depression, cognitive styles that confer vulnerability to anxiety have received considerably less attention. In the present investigation, we examined the looming maladaptive style (LMS) as a cognitive style that functions as a danger schema to produce specific vulnerability to anxiety, but not to depression. In 4 studies, we examined the psychometric properties of a revised measure of the LMS, its predictive utility, and its effects on threat-related schematic processing. Results provided evidence for the validity of the LMS and indicated that it predicts anxiety and schematic processing of threat over and above the effects of other cognitive appraisals of threat, even in individuals who are currently nonanxious.

Adult Romantic Attachment and Cognitive Vulnerabilities to Anxiety and Depression: Examining the Interpersonal Basis of Vulnerability Models

Bowlby’s attachment theory contends that all individuals develop working models of self and significant others, based on early experiences, that have important implications for understanding adult psychopathology. From a social cognitive perspective these “working models” can be conceptualized in terms of relational schemas that have the same functions as other types of schemas (e.g., organizing information, guiding future behavior, etc.). Cognitive vulnerability models have proposed a pessimistic explanatory style that confers vulnerability to depression and a looming maladaptive style that confers vulnerability to anxiety. The present study examines the pattern of relationships between adult romantic attachment, cognitive vulnerabilities to anxiety and depression, self-reported anxious and depressive symptoms, and both general and specific relationship outcomes. Results suggest that higher levels of attachment insecurity were associated with increased psychological symptoms, higher levels of cognitive vulnerabilities, and greater general and relationship impairments. Moreover, cognitive vulnerabilities partially mediated the relationship between adult attachment and anxious and depressive symptoms, suggesting that insecure attachments may represent a developmental antecedent to cognitive vulnerabilities to anxiety and depression.

Flexibility and Negative Affect: Examining the Associations of Explanatory Flexibility and Coping Flexibility to Each Other and to Depression and Anxiety

Recent research on vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety has begun to de-emphasize cognitive content in favor of the responsiveness of the individual to variations in situational context in arriving at explanations of events (explanatory flexibility) or attempts to cope with negative events (coping flexibility). The present study integrates these promising avenues of conceptualization by assessing the respective contributions of explanatory and coping flexibility to current levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Results of structural equation modeling support a model of partial mediation in which both explanatory flexibility and coping flexibility independently contribute to the prediction of latent negative affect, with coping flexibility partially mediating the influence of explanatory flexibility.

The Looming Cognitive Style and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Distinctive Danger Schemas and Cognitive Phenomenology

While great strides have been made in understanding the nature, role, and maintenance of maladaptive cognitive and affective avoidance strategies in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), much remains to be learned about the nature of threat appraisals that are instigators of such compensatory self-protective responses. The looming cognitive style (LCS) is characterized by a distinctive cognitive phenomenology and tendency to construct mental scenarios and appraisals of unfolding threat and increasing danger. Research shows that the LCS functions as a danger schema and is related to worry and anxiety but not depression. Two studies were conducted to examine the role of the LCS in GAD. Results of these studies suggest that the LCS is present at higher levels in GADs but not in non-GADS or unipolar depressives. Study 1 used an analogue sample of students with a probable diagnosis of GAD. Study 2 investigated the distinctiveness and specificity of the LCS in clinically diagnosed patients and nonpsychopathology controls. Results of Study 2 indicate that the LCS is present in clinical GADs but not unipolar depressive disorders or nonpsychopathology controls. Collectively, results of both studies suggest that the LCS uniquely contributes to the discrimination and classification of GAD beyond the effects of anxious and depressive symptoms, worry, and thought suppression. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for extending current cognitive conceptualizations of GAD.

Attentional bias differences between fear and disgust: Implications for the role of disgust in disgust-related anxiety disorders

Research demonstrates a relation between disgust and anxiety-related pathology; however, research has yet to reveal mechanisms by which disgust may contribute to anxiety. The current experiment examined attentional bias characteristics as one route by which disgust influences anxiety. Eighty undergraduate participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation attention task using fear, disgust, or neutral target stimuli. Task-relevance of the targets presentation was also manipulated. Results revealed that task-relevant disgust targets impaired attention among all participants, but task-irrelevant disgust targets impaired attention only in high disgust prone individuals. Difficulty in disengagement characterised both disgust and fear attentional biases, but the difficulty in disengagement was greater for disgust compared to fear attentional biases. High disgust prone individuals displayed exaggerated difficulty in disengaging attention from disgust targets compared to low disgust prone individuals. The results suggest that disgust attentional biases differ from fear attentional biases. The characteristics of disgust attentional biases are discussed as possible mechanisms by which disgust functions in certain anxiety disorders.

Mental pollution and PTSD symptoms in victims of sexual assault: A preliminary examination of the mediating role of trauma-related cognitions.

Trauma-related cognitions have been proposed to contribute significantly to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Recent research suggests that feelings of mental pollution (feelings of dirtiness without physical contact) may also contribute to symptoms of PTSD in victims of sexual assault (Fairbrother & Rachman, 2004). The present study investigated the relation between mental pollution, PTSD cognitions, and PTSD symptoms in victims of sexual assault (N = 48). The results indicated that mental pollution was significantly related to PTSD symptoms even when statistically controlling for symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, subsequent analyses showed that the relation between feelings of mental pollution and PTSD symptoms was fully mediated by trauma-related cognitions. These findings are discussed in the context of a model in which feelings of mental pollution elicit specific negative cognitions that maintain PTSD symptoms in victims of sexual assault.

Attributional style and anxiety sensitivity as maintenance factors of posttraumatic stress symptoms: A prospective examination of a diathesis-stress model.

Diathesis-stress models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assert that traumatic events function as stressors that interact with vulnerabilities to influence the development of PTSD. The present study prospectively examined negative attributional style (NAS) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) as maintenance factors for PTSD in female adult sexual assault victims. A diathesis-stress model was tested by examining interactions between the vulnerabilities and negative life events. The present study included both the traditional three-factor model of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance and emotional numbing, and arousal) and the dysphoria four-factor model of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance, arousal, and dysphoria). Robust regression analyses revealed that negative life events at Time 2 significantly predicted increases in all clusters of the three-factor model (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing, and arousal) and the re-experiencing, arousal, and dysphoria clusters of the four-factor model (but not avoidance). Neither NAS nor AS significantly independently predicted any of the symptom clusters for either model. Both NAS and AS interacted with negative life events to predict increases in the avoidance and numbing symptoms. However, examination of the dysphoria four-factor model of PTSD revealed that the NAS and AS interactions with negative life events only predicted dysphoria symptoms.