Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders

Vulnerability to Anxiety 113

Hypothesis 11. Heightened Sense of Personal Vulnerability

Highly anxious individuals will exhibit lower self- confidence and greater perceived
helplessness in situations relevant to their selective threats compared to nonanxious
individuals.

Beck et al. (1985, 2005) considered diminished self- confidence and self-doubt an
important aspect of cognitive vulnerability to anxiety. For the person who suffers from
anxiety a self- confidence set is replaced by a vulnerability perspective. When in a vul-
nerability mode, individuals evaluate their own abilities and competence as inadequate
for dealing with a perceived threat. As a result, they become tentative or withdraw
from a situation in a self- protective manner. When a confident attitude is adopted, the
individual focuses on the positives in a situation, minimizes the dangers, and may even
assume a greater sense of personal control than when low self- confidence prevails (Beck
et al., 1985, 2005). Adopting a confident mode increases the probability of success in

Genetic

Predisposition

Biological

Determinants

Developmental

Learning

Experiences

High Negative Affect or

Emotionality Trait Anxiety

High Anxiety

Sensitivity

Sensitivity to

Negative

Evaluation

Diminished

Personal Control

Aversive

Life Events

Hypervalent Threat

Schema Activation

Heightened Sense of

Personal Weakness

and Reduced Safety

State of Anxiety

BROADER

FOCUS

NARROWER

FOCUS

figure 4.1. Cognitive vulnerability model of anxiety.