Testing associations between negative interpretation inflexibility, anxiety symptoms and intolerance of uncertainty

IF 4.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

Behaviour Research and Therapy Pub Date : 2025-09-04 DOI:10.1016/j.brat.2025.104851

Gabriella Tyson , Victoria Ferreira , Persia Shoja-Assadi , Colette R. Hirsch

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Abstract

Anxiety is a highly prevalent psychological problem. Transdiagnostic mechanisms such as intolerance of uncertainty and repetitive negative thinking (RNT) are associated with current and future anxiety. Both intolerance of uncertainty and RNT are themselves maintained by a more negative interpretation bias of ambiguous situations. Once negative interpretations have been generated, they might be amended when incongruent information comes to light. If an individual has interpretation inflexibility, they do not revise negative interpretations once generated. The relationship between interpretation inflexibility and general (non-social specific) anxiety has not been investigated.

The current research examines how interpretation bias and interpretation inflexibility are related to intolerance of uncertainty and repetitive negative thinking in single-session online studies, using cognitive tasks to measure interpretation bias and inflexibility and self-report measurements of symptoms. Two experiments aimed to recruit people with a range of anxiety levels, Study 1 ended up recruiting a relatively low anxious sample (N = 120), but Study 2 (N = 120) recruited participants with full range of general anxiety scores.

Significant relationships were found between interpretation bias and anxiety symptoms, repetitive negative thinking, and intolerance of uncertainty in Study 2 but not Study 1. Neither study found significant relationships with interpretation inflexibility. The findings suggest that interpretation inflexibility does not play the same role in maintaining general anxiety symptoms as it has been shown to in social anxiety, and that interpretation bias and inflexibility have unique relationships with cognitive factors related to general anxiety.

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测试消极解释缺乏灵活性、焦虑症状和对不确定性的不耐受之间的关系

焦虑是一种非常普遍的心理问题。跨诊断机制，如对不确定性的不耐受和重复性消极思维（RNT）与当前和未来的焦虑有关。对不确定性的不容忍和RNT本身都是通过对模棱两可情况的更消极的解释偏见来维持的。一旦产生了负面的解释，当不一致的信息出现时，它们可能会被修正。如果一个人有解释的不灵活性，他们不会修改负面的解释一旦产生。口译缺乏灵活性与一般（非社会特异性）焦虑之间的关系尚未被调查。目前的研究考察了在单次在线研究中，解释偏差和解释缺乏灵活性如何与不确定性的不容忍和重复的消极思维相关，使用认知任务来测量解释偏差和缺乏灵活性以及症状的自我报告测量。两个实验旨在招募具有不同焦虑水平的人，研究1最终招募了一个相对较低的焦虑样本（N = 120），但研究2 （N = 120）招募了一个全面的一般焦虑评分的参与者。在研究2中发现解释偏差与焦虑症状、重复消极思维和不确定性耐受之间存在显著关系，但在研究1中没有发现。两项研究都没有发现与口译缺乏灵活性有显著关系。研究结果表明，解释不灵活在维持一般焦虑症状中所起的作用与在社交焦虑中所显示的不同，解释偏见和不灵活与一般焦虑相关的认知因素具有独特的关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Behaviour Research and Therapy PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

7.30%

发文量

148

期刊介绍： The major focus of Behaviour Research and Therapy is an experimental psychopathology approach to understanding emotional and behavioral disorders and their prevention and treatment, using cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological (including neural) methods and models. This includes laboratory-based experimental studies with healthy, at risk and subclinical individuals that inform clinical application as well as studies with clinically severe samples. The following types of submissions are encouraged: theoretical reviews of mechanisms that contribute to psychopathology and that offer new treatment targets; tests of novel, mechanistically focused psychological interventions, especially ones that include theory-driven or experimentally-derived predictors, moderators and mediators; and innovations in dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices into clinical practice in psychology and associated fields, especially those that target underlying mechanisms or focus on novel approaches to treatment delivery. In addition to traditional psychological disorders, the scope of the journal includes behavioural medicine (e.g., chronic pain). The journal will not consider manuscripts dealing primarily with measurement, psychometric analyses, and personality assessment.