The Cognitive Model of Anxiety 55
table 2.6. hypotheses of the Cognitive model of anxiety
Hypothesis 1: Attentional threat bias
Highly anxious individuals will exhibit an automatic selective attentional bias for negative stimuli
that are relevant to threats of particular vital concerns. This automatic selective attentional threat
bias will not be present in nonanxious states.
Hypothesis 2: Diminished attentional processing of safety
Anxious individuals will exhibit an automatic attentional shift away from safety cues that are
incongruent with their dominant threat concerns, whereas nonanxious individuals will show an
automatic attentional shift toward safety cues.
Hypothesis 3: Exaggerated threat appraisals
Anxiety is characterized by an automatic evaluative process that exaggerates the threatening valence
of relevant stimuli in comparison to the actual threat valence of the stimuli. Nonanxious individuals
will automatically evaluate relevant stimuli in a less threatening manner that approximates the
actual threat value of the situation.
Hypothesis 4: Threat-biased cognitive errors
Highly anxious individuals will commit more cognitive errors while processing particular
threatening stimuli as reflected in biased estimates of the proximity, probability, and severity
of potential threat. The reverse pattern will be evident in nonanxious states where a cognitive
processing bias for nonthreat or safety cues is present.
Hypothesis 5: Negative interpretation of anxiety
Highly anxious individuals will generate more negative and threatening interpretations of their
subjective anxious feelings and symptoms than individuals experiencing low levels of anxiety.
Hypothesis 6: Elevated disorder-specific threat cognitions
Anxiety will be characterized by an elevated frequency, intensity, and duration of negative
automatic thoughts and images of selective threat and danger in comparison to nonanxious states
or other types of negative affect. Furthermore, each of the anxiety disorders is characterized by a
particular thought content relevant to its specific threat.
Hypothesis 7: Ineffective defensive strategies
Highly anxious individuals will exhibit less effective immediate defensive strategies for diminishing
anxiety and securing a sense of safety relative to individuals experiencing low levels of anxiety. In
addition highly anxious individuals will evaluate their defensive abilities in threatening situations as
less effective than nonanxious individuals.
Hypothesis 8: Facilitated threat elaboration
A selective threat bias will be evident in explicit and elaborated cognitive processes such that in
anxiety memory retrieval, outcome expectancies, and inferences to ambiguous stimuli will show a
preponderance of threat-related themes relative to nonanxious individuals.
Hypothesis 9: Inhibited safety elaboration
Explicit and controlled cognitive processes in anxiety will be characterized by an inhibitory bias of
safety information relevant to selective threats such that memory retrieval, outcome expectancies,
and judgments of ambiguous stimuli will evidence fewer themes of safety in comparison to
nonanxious individuals.
(cont.)