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A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety

A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety
A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety
Evidence of preattentive and attentional biases in anxiety is evaluated from a cognitive-motivational perspective. According to this analysis, vulnerability to anxiety stems mainly from a lower threshold for appraising threat, rather than a bias in the direction of attention deployment. Thus, relatively innocuous stimuli are evaluated as having higher subjective threat value by high than low trait anxious individuals, and it is further assumed that everyone orients to stimuli that are judged to be significantly threatening. This account is contrasted with other recent cognitive models of anxiety, and implications for the etiology, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed.
anxiety, motivation, selective attention, attentional bias, appraisal
0005-7967
809-848
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514

Mogg, Karin and Bradley, Brendan P. (1998) A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36 (9), 809-848. (doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00063-1).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Evidence of preattentive and attentional biases in anxiety is evaluated from a cognitive-motivational perspective. According to this analysis, vulnerability to anxiety stems mainly from a lower threshold for appraising threat, rather than a bias in the direction of attention deployment. Thus, relatively innocuous stimuli are evaluated as having higher subjective threat value by high than low trait anxious individuals, and it is further assumed that everyone orients to stimuli that are judged to be significantly threatening. This account is contrasted with other recent cognitive models of anxiety, and implications for the etiology, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed.

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More information

Published date: 1998
Keywords: anxiety, motivation, selective attention, attentional bias, appraisal

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 18423
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/18423
ISSN: 0005-7967
PURE UUID: 1d4ca590-d2b9-4410-b4bd-dedc7ba98637
ORCID for Brendan P. Bradley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2801-4271

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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2005
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:19

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