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Assessing Mindfulness As A Moderator Between Trait Worry And Working Memory Capacity Performance In Undergraduates, William Farmer

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness and worry have some antithetical qualities, yet mixed or non-significant findings suggest that practicing mindfulness alone will not disrupt worry. Working memory capacity (WMC) has been implicated in the relationship between worry and mindfulness, with some research showing that the combined practice of mindfulness and WMC test exercises had the greatest impact on reducing worry. The present study sought to test the relationship between worry, trait mindfulness, behavioral mindfulness as assessed by a Mindfulness Activities Questionnaire (MAQ) created by the researcher, and both the verbal and visuospatial domains of WMC. Worry was shown to be negatively associated with mindfulness. …

Understanding The Role Of Emotion Regulation Tendencies In The Momentary Associations Between Negative Affect And Eating Disorder Behaviors., Coby D. Banet

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are becoming increasingly commonplace and are associated with a broad array of dangerous medical complications. Further, EDs frequently present alongside comorbid psychiatric disorders (e.g., depressive and anxiety-related disorders), which are known to both predict ED severity and reduce treatment efficacy. While diagnostic categorization persists, Fairburn et al.’s (1993) transdiagnostic model suggests EDs may be more closely related and maintained through core, shared symptoms. To assess ED maintenance, momentary triggers such as negative affect (NA) are becoming increasingly centralized. The present study examines the roles of depressive symptoms and worry in predicting and moderating the relationships among …

The Connections Among Worry, Sleep Hygiene, And Sleep Quality, Anna Quesada

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sleep disturbances commonly plague undergraduate students (Buboltz et al., 2001). In fact, being an undergraduate student is a risk factor for developing a sleep disturbance (Medic et. al., 2017). Understanding the impact of worry on the relationship between sleep hygiene and sleep disturbances could inform strategies for improving sleep quality in undergraduate populations. Given the fact that sleep issues affect health and academic performance negatively (Buboltz, et al., 2001), improving sleep patterns may boost academic performance, physical health, and mental health. This study investigated relationships between sleep hygiene and worry in an undergraduate sample by using a longitudinal design. Participants …

Social Anxiety, Worry, And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Yu-Jin Eun

Masters Theses

Numerous cognitive aspects of social anxiety have been examined. For example, the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) has been incorporated into the cognitive-behavioral model of Social Anxiety (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997), and more recently the Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) has received great interest (c.f., Weeks et al., 2008). Other relevant cognitive aspects of social anxiety have received less attention. Of interest, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is highly related to worry but also to social anxiety (e.g., Boelen & Reijntjes, 2009; Dugas et al., 2001). However, no research, to our knowledge, has examined whether social anxiety or worry accounts for …

There Is Nothing Certain But Uncertainty: Manipulation Of Uncertainty And Its Association With Worry And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Casey E. Brugh

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Intolerance of uncertainty is related to a variety of clinical and nonclinical concepts including clinical and nonclinical levels of worry (Buhr & Dugas, 2002) as well as several disorders, including general anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and social anxiety disorder (Einstein et al., 2014). Since it has been found to be a transdiagnostic concept, research has suggested that it could be a target of intervention (Dugas & Ladouceur, 2000). However, little research about the manipulation of uncertainty exists. This study sought to examine how manipulation of uncertainty in a vignette-based intervention alters individuals’ levels of global worry, as well …

Does Change In Anxiety Predict Changes In Metacognitions?, Heather Lynn Clark

MSU Graduate Theses

In recent years an increasing number of studies have examined anxiety-related metacognitive beliefs and their relationship to anxiety disorder diagnoses and treatment outcome. However, no study to date has examined changes in metacognitive beliefs following induced anxiety. The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between changes in state anxiety and worry-related metacognitive beliefs. Participants completed baseline measures of anxiety and metacognitions before either being exposed to a control stimulus or worry-inducing stimulus. Following exposure participants completed anxiety and metacognition measures once again. Group means comparison analyses and correlations are reported. Results suggest state anxiety can be …

Exploring Associations Between Student Academic Achievement, Worry, Personality, And Parental Warmth And Control, Katherine G. Kaufling

Undergraduate Theses

This correlational study evaluates the relationships between academic achievement, worry, personality, and parental warmth and control. Results add to the existing literature surrounding what behaviors parents may or may not practice when raising their children and what connections these behaviors may have to their children succeeding academically and/or experiencing worrisome thoughts when they’re college-aged. Additionally, the role of student personality in parenting behaviors, academic achievement, and worry is evaluated. Multiple correlational hypotheses are offered and evaluated along with a moderation model (personality and worry as moderators of the relationship between parenting and academic achievement). 273 college students completed an online …

Further Exploration Of The Relationship Between Worry And Contrast Avoidance, Anna E. Snyder

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The Contrast Avoidance Model of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) proposes that individuals with GAD are sensitive to negative emotional contrasts (i.e., sharp shifts from neutral or positive emotional states to negative emotional states). These individuals prefer to remain in a negative emotional state to avoid these negative contrasts. They stay in this state by worrying. The present study aimed to directly test the Contrast Avoidance Model of GAD by using an experimental manipulation and also to further develop the literature on the relationship between contrast avoidance, worry, and GAD. Results of this study showed mixed support for the model overall; …

Repetitive Negative Thinking Styles And First-Semester Academic Performance: Psychological Risk And Resilience Among Low-Income College Students., Darlene M. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

College students face significant mental health and academic challenges their first academic year. The college transition period can be stressful. In addition, students are increasingly endorsing anxious and depressive symptoms. Depressive and anxious symptoms are linked to repetitive negative thinking styles that present in college students, which contributes to academic interference. The first year of college can be challenging for students who are unable to adjust and adapt. Students who struggle and feel overwhelmed by life stressors experience psychological disruption that interferes with academic performance. Growing up in poverty has been associated with lower grade point averages and poorer graduation …

Physiological Activation As A Mediator In The Relationship Between Perseverative Cognition And Somatic Symptoms, Karly M. Murphy

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Somatic symptoms are a significant medical and mental health concern that affects healthy adults and places a significant burden on healthcare systems. The perseverative cognition hypothesis posits that perseverative cognition results in prolonged physiological activation that may be interpreted as somatic symptoms. The purpose of this study was to further examine this hypothesis in a sample of young adults. First, I hypothesized that perseverative cognition would prospectively predict somatic symptoms after controlling for anxiety and depression. Second, I hypothesized that parasympathetic nervous system functioning, measured as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and sympathetic nervous system functioning, measured as electrodermal responding (EDR) …

Hardiness, Perseverative Cognition, Anxiety, And Health-Related Outcomes: A Case For And Against Psychological Hardiness, Christopher M. Kowalski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present study investigates the utility of psychological hardiness as well as the differences between rumination and worry. Undergraduate students completed questionnaires assessing hardiness, worry, rumination, mindfulness, neuroticism, anxiety, somatization, coping, and health. Correlations and partial correlations controlling for neuroticism were examined. Hardiness was negatively correlated with neuroticism, rumination, worry, and anxiety and positively correlated with mindfulness, coping, and health. When neuroticism was statistically controlled, the relationships between hardiness and rumination, health, and coping became nonsignificant, and the relationships between hardiness and worry, mindfulness, and anxiety although attenuated, remained significant. Rumination and worry positively correlated, but when neuroticism was statistically …

A Culturally-Sensitive Cognitive Model Of Worry In African American Youth., Allyn Elizabeth Richards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our understanding of worry in children and adolescents has been increasingly enhanced over the past decade through the downward extension of adult cognitive models. Although our knowledge about the cognitive factors that place children at risk for worry has grown, little is known about these processes within African American youth. This is particularly notable given extant work suggesting that risk and protective processes are influenced by contextual factors. The current study reviews literatures regarding cognitive factors associated with worry and sociocultural factors salient to the African American context in order to inform a culturally-sensitive cognitive model of worry in African …

Rumination, Worry, And Drinking Behaviors In College Students : A Mediation Analysis., Stephanie Winkeljohn Black

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health and alcohol-related behaviors are constructs of concern on university campuses, as a significant portion of college students experience alcohol-related consequences. There is an established link between mental health variables, including repetitive thoughts associated with depression and anxiety, and drinking behaviors among college students. However, how preventative behaviors – protective behavioral strategies – impact the associations between repetitive thoughts and drinking behaviors and outcomes is less understood. The current longitudinal study analyzed mediational relationships among these variables in college students at a mid-sized 4-year university (N = 107; 78.5% female; average age = 21.06 years, SD = 4.41). Analyses …

The Effects Of Repetitive Thought And Construal Level On Alcohol Consumption, Andrew Mark Kiselica

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Repetitive thought, or the recurrent, often cyclical, focus on self-relevant concerns and experiences, is one liability that may be common across internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) disorders. One particular area of interest for examining repetitive thought as a transdiagnostic process is in relation to alcohol use because alcohol abuse and dependence are the most common, and possibly most costly, EXT disorders. This study experimentally induced abstract repetitive thought, concrete repetitive thought, or distraction to test if repetitive thought and construal level have an effect on drinking behavior. It was hypothesized that individuals in both repetitive thought conditions would drink more …

Can Distress Tolerance Predict Chronic Worry? Investigating The Relationships Among Worry, Distress Tolerance, Cognitive Avoidance, Psychological Flexibility, Difficulties In Emotion Regulation, And Anxiety Sensitivity, Bethany Anne Sabourin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

According to the avoidance theory of worry proposed by Borkovec, Alcaine, and Behar (2004), chronic worry functions as an avoidance mechanism, enabling an individual to diminish the physiological experience of anxiety by impeding emotional processing of the fear stimulus. Previous research has revealed significant correlations between chronic worry and difficulties in emotion regulation (Salters-Pedneault et al., 2006) as well as anxiety sensitivity (Floyd, Garfield, & LaSota, 2005). Distress tolerance which is significantly related to anxiety sensitivity (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Vujanovic, & Moos, 2009) is strongly associated with many maladaptive avoidance behaviors (Anestis et al., 2007; Linehan, 1993; Timpano et al., 2009; …

The Ticking Of The “Biological Clock”: Worry About Future Fertility In Nulliparous Women, Karen E. Kersting

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Title: The Ticking of the “Biological Clock”: Worry about Future Fertility in Nulliparous Women

By: Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2013.

Major Director: Kathleen M. Ingram, J.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology

Modern women are waiting until later in their lives to have children than women of previous generations, a trend influenced by a number of factors including financial stability, dating norms, and career goals and responsibilities. As women age, their fertility may decline …

Worry Induction Among Adolescents: A Laboratory Evaluation, Jamie Leigh Frala

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Available research indicates that worry is an important process involved in the development and maintenance of both psychological (e.g., Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and physical (e.g., coronary heart disease) problems. However, this process is still in need of further investigation, particularly among adolescents. While a sizable body of literature has examined the nature, prevalence, and correlates of worry in both adults and youth, laboratory investigations of this variable using a real-time worry induction paradigm have previously only been done with adults. The current study aimed to extend the literature by using the controlled laboratory methods well established in the adult literature …

Examination Of Problem-Solving Related Metacognitions And Worry In An American Sample, Jennifer Jacobson

UNF Undergraduate Honors Theses

Problem-solving metacognitions, including responsibility to continue to think about a problem and a low confidence in problem-solving, have been hypothesized to be associated with pathological worry; however, these metacognitive variables have received surprisingly little attention in the research literature. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Problem-Solving Related Metacognitions Questionnaire (PSRMCQ), translated to English from Japanese. A sample of 241 non-referred college students completed the PSRMCQ, along with a measure of worry symptoms and a measure of other commonly examined metacognitions. The PSRMCQ measure was found to exhibit strong internal consistency. …

The Practice Effect: The Relationships Among The Frequency Of Early Formal Mindfulness Practice, Mindfulness Skills, Worry, And Quality Of Life In An Acceptance-Based Behavior Therapy For Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Lucas Paul Kawika Morgan

Graduate Masters Theses

Mindfulness- and acceptance-based treatments are currently being used to treat a variety of medical and mental health difficulties. Most of these treatments teach formal mindfulness practices which aim at developing mindfulness skills. However, little is known about the relationships among amount of formal mindfulness practice, changes in mindfulness skills, and changes in outcome variables. An acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) has been shown to be particularly effective in the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD; Roemer & Orsillo, 2007; Roemer, Orsillo, & Salters-Pednault, 2008). This study explored the relationships among formal mindfulness practice, skills, and outcomes in the context of an …

Worry And Rumination: Measurement Invariance Across Gender, Janet A. Carter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study examined the factor structure of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Student Worry Questionnaire-30 (SWQ-30), the Anxious Thoughts Inventory (AnTI), the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), and the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ). The present study also examined the measurement invariance between men (n = 186) and women (n = 316) in a university sample. Different models for each measure were identified through a review of the literature, and the models were examined through confirmatory factor analyses. The best-fitting models for each measure were retained for subsequent model modification to improve fit and for invariance testing across …

Hope And Worry Among Mothers Of Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder Or Down Syndrome, Paula Ogston

Theses and Dissertations

The present study used quantitative and qualitative methodology to examine mothers’ hope and worry. Participants were recruited via autism and Down syndrome organizations. Two hundred fifty-nine mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders (n = 199) and Down syndrome (n = 60) responded to the online questionnaire. Most mothers were white (n = 230); eighty-seven percent were married and their average age was 39.06 years. Findings support previous research suggesting that hope is a protective factor against psychological distress: mothers with higher hope reported lower dispositional worry. Mothers were asked to describe what they worried about when they woke up …

The Developmental Continuity Of A Cognitive Model Of Worry, Kimberly Rae Zlomke

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on the construct of worry has increased dramatically in the past two decades. This research has also tended to focus on adults, with only a limited number of studies examining adolescent populations. With the continued dominance of developmental psychopathology and a lifespan approach to development, it has become apparent that downward extensions of adult models of psychopathology are inadequate (cf. Mash & Dozois, 2002). As a result, investigations in adolescents are essential due to the potential developmental differences and heterotypic continuity in worry between adolescents and adults. These developmental differences and changes associated with the period of adolescence may …

The Effects Of An Evening Structured Problem-Solving Procedure In Undergraduate College Students With Insomnia, Colleen E. Carney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Worry is often reported as interfering with sleep onset and sleep maintenance, and pre-sleep cognitive arousal can persist after successful behavioral treatment of insomnia. The present investigation will examine the effects of a "constructive worry" procedure in an undergraduate population with impaired sleep. Thirty-three undergraduate students who reported three or more nights per week in the last month of sleep onset and/or sleep maintenance problems, either recorded worries and possible solutions (experimental CW group) or recorded worries and completed worry questionnaires (control Worry group) for five nights. As hypothesized, the CW group had decreased pre-sleep cognitive and overall arousal relative …

The Relation Between Electrodermal Activity In Sleep, Negative Activity Affect, And Stress In Patients Referred For Nocturnal Polysomnography, Laura Elaine Lajos

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study of electrodermal activity (EDA) began over a century ago, and the phenomenon has been linked to many aspects of emotion, arousal and attention. A subset of studies has focused on the occurrence of EDA in sleep (EDAS). These investigations have led to definitive conclusions on when EDA is most likely to occur during the sleep cycle, i.e., slow-wave sleep. Studies have also shown that at least moderate stress tends to increase EDAS, but these studies have fallen short methodologically. The aims of the present study were: (a) to investigate the relation of negative affect and stress to EDAS, …

Does The Conceptual Nature Of Worry Contribute To Its Uncontrollability? : Unravelling The Complex Interactions Of Some Of The Properties Of Worry, Jacinta M. Willans

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project aims to examine a particular property of worry that some therapists claim interferes with the treatment of clients who worry. Research has shown that worry is predominantly composed of concepts or thoughts rather than images (Borkovee & Hu, 1990). In particular this project aims to investigate whether the verbal linguistic nature of worry contributes to the sense that participants have that it is uncontrollable. Attempting to control an image results in a paradoxical effect of an increase in the frequency of the image (Wegner, Schneider, Carter & White, 1987). Does the same paradoxical effect occur when thoughts and …