46 COGNITIVE THEORY AND RESEARCH ON ANXIETY
other anxiety disorders, like social phobia, PTSD, or OCD, perceived elevation of auto-
nomic arousal and the physical symptoms of anxiousness can be interpreted as confir-
mation of threat. It is the physiological schemas of the threat mode that are responsible
for anxious persons’ threat appraisals of their heightened physical state.
Motivational Schemas
These schemas are closely related to the behavioral domain and involve representations
of our aims and intentions relevant to threat. Thus motivational schemas involve beliefs
and rules about the importance of moving away from threat or danger and of reducing
the u npred ic tabilit y and aversiveness of sit uations. Moreover, loss of cont rol is a state that
one is highly motivated to avoid under conditions of threat. Activation of the motivational
schemas of the primal threat mode, then, is responsible for the sense of urgency anxious
individuals feel in trying to escape or avoid a perceived threat and reduce their anxiety.
Affective Schemas
These schemas are involved in the perception of feeling states and so are integral to the
subjective experience of emotion. The affective schemas play an important functional
role in the survival of the organism by ensuring that attention is diverted to a poten-
tial threat and that some form of corrective action is taken (Beck, 1996). Activation of
threat mode affect schemas, then, produces the emotional experience individuals report
when in states of anxiety: increased nervousness, tension, agitation, feeling “on edge.”
Clinician Guideline 2.11
Utilize cognitive and behavioral interventions in cognitive therapy to reduce the accessibil-
ity and dominance of primal threat schemas, which are considered central to the experience
of anxiety.Consequences of Threat Mode Activation
As depicted in Figure 2.1, the relatively automatic activation of the primal threat mode
sets in motion a complex psychological process that does not end simply with a pri-
mary appraisal of threat. Four additional processes can be identified that help define the
immediate fear response: increased autonomic arousal, immediate defensive and inhibi-
tory responses, cognitive processing biases and errors, and threat- oriented automatic
thoughts and images. Each of these four processes is bidirectional with primal mode
activation responsible for their initial occurrence, but once active these processes feed
back in a manner that strengthens the primary threat appraisal.
Heightened Autonomic Arousal
Threat mode activation involves an appraisal of the heightened autonomic arousal that
characterizes anxiety states. Beck et al. (1985, 2005) stated that subjective anxiety is