The Relationship of Neuroticism with Sleep Quality: The Mediating Role of Emotional, Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors.

BACKGROUND: Poor sleep quality is associated with a broad range of psychopathology and is a common problem among college students. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of metacognitive beliefs related to sleep, emotion regulation and a negative cognitive style related to anxiety (looming cognitive style) in the relation between neuroticism and reported sleep quality. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 343 undergraduates from three universities in Tehran (56.3% females, Mean age = 22.01 ± 2.74 years). METHOD: Data were gathered with a questionnaire packet that included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Metacognitions Questionnaire-Insomnia (MCQ-I), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ) and Neuroticism subscale of NEO-PI-R. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling analyses supported a proposed model (R2 = 37%) which proposed that neuroticism both directly and indirectly linked to reported sleep quality through metacognitions related to sleep, cognitive reappraisal and looming cognitive style (χ2 = 1194.87, p < .001; CFI = 0.93, NFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.065, GFI = 0.92, SRMR = 0.069, IFI = 0.93). CONCLUSIONS: The results provide evidence for the impact of neuroticism on reported sleep quality through metacognitive, cognitive and emotional factors. The result suggest that special attention should be paid to these factors in the treatment and psychopathology of sleep quality.

Anxiety and the dynamic self as defined by the prospection and mental simulation of looming future threats.

A more dynamic perspective of threats to the self may contribute to an enhanced understanding of the processes that develop and maintain anxiety and thus, potentially inform psychological interventions. This article presents the looming vulnerability model of anxiety, which stresses the threat or risk prospection and dynamic mental simulation of the course of threat. Individuals do not become anxious simply because they picture distant or static possible threats that represent threats to the self. Rather, their anxiety results from interpreting potential threats as dynamic, growing, and approaching. Following a review of a wide range of literature from clinical, personality, and social psychology, we present the looming vulnerability model and its underpinnings in evolution and examine its applications to cognitive vulnerability to anxiety and its therapeutic alleviation [Correction added on 6 August 2019, after first online publication: Abstract text has been corrected to 'looming vulnerability model' in two places.]. We also address the associations of the model to other self-related concepts that are involved in anxiety.

Wise Additions Bridge the Gap between Social Psychology and Clinical Practice: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy as an Exemplar.

Progress in clinical science, theory, and practice requires the integration of advances from multiple fields of psychology, but much integration remains to be done. The current article seeks to address the specific gap that exists between basic social psychological theories and the implementation of related therapeutic techniques. We propose several "wise additions," based upon the principles outlined by Walton (2014), intended to bridge current social psychological research with clinical psychological therapeutic practice using cognitive behavioral therapy as an example. We consider how recent advances in social psychological theories can inform the development and implementation of wise additions in clinical case conceptualization and interventions. We specifically focus on self and identity, self-affirmation, transference, social identity, and embodied cognition, five dominant areas of interest in the field that have clear clinical applications.

Testing the psychometric properties of the Cognitions Checklist, a measure to differentiate anxiety and depression among older adults.

Considerable debate has been waged in the field about whether anxiety and depressive cognitions can be discriminated, and whether they can discriminate anxiety and depression symptoms. The current study examined a standard measure of cognitions, the Cognitions Checklist (CCL) that has yielded mixed results when tested in older age samples. A community sample of older adults (N=169; mean age=75.70; SD=8.55) completed a series of self-report questionnaires, including the CCL as well as measures of anxiety and depression symptoms. The CCL, which yielded a three-factor structure rather than the typical two-factor structure, did not cognitively discriminate anxiety from depression. The results have implications for understanding cognitive factors that differentiate between anxiety and depression symptoms in older adults and suggest the importance of assessing cognitions that are tailored to the concerns of this population.

Looming threat-processing style in a cancer cohort.

OBJECTIVE: Looming threat-processing style, where threats are perceived to be progressing (looming) at a frightening velocity, is implicated in anxiety vulnerability. This study aims to validate a new measure of looming, the looming cancer, and explore its clinical correlates in a chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cohort. METHODS: In a cross-sectional design, 105 CLL patients completed the Looming Cancer Scale, Looming Cognitive Style Questionnaire (LCSQ), SF-36, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis reduced the 20-item Looming Cancer Scale to a 10-item version, which demonstrated good psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha=.926). Convergent validity was demonstrated by Pearson correlation with the LCSQ (0.418), BAI (0.380), BDI-II (0.336) and the mental component score of the SF-36 (-0.434) (all P<.001). Divergent validity was demonstrated by a lack of correlation with the SF-36 physical component score and cross tabulation frequencies of high and low loomers. High vs. low loomers showed significantly more anxiety (31% vs. 13%), depression (23% vs. 2%) and mixed anxiety-depression (18% vs. 2%). An area under the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed high sensitivity (82%) and specificity (69%) in detecting mixed anxiety-depression using a cutoff score of >/=20/30. CONCLUSIONS: The Looming Cancer Scale is a valid measurement of looming cognitive style and is the first time that the looming construct has been studied in a cancer cohort. The importance of this research lies in its potential to identify populations vulnerable to developing anxiety, depression and mixed anxiety-depression symptoms.

Short-term predictive effects of the looming cognitive style on anxiety disorder symptoms under restrictive methodological conditions.

The looming cognitive style (LCS), an overarching cognitive vulnerability for anxiety syndromes, pertains to a tendency to construct dynamic expectations (mental scenarios, images) of negative events as progressively increasing in danger and rapidly escalating in risk. This study tested the hypothesis that the LCS has functions as a cognitive antecedent and moderator for even short-term changes over a brief time interval in anxiety syndromes (worry, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, social anxiety, general anxiety) under restrictive methodological conditions. These included: (a) a one-week interval during which very little changes in anxiety were observed, and (b) controlling for participants' depression and intolerance of uncertainty. As hypothesized by our model, the looming cognitive style predicted short-term changes in worry and OCD symptoms over the week interval, and tended to predict changes in social (audience) anxiety. This style also functioned as a moderator and predicted changes in OCD symptoms among participants already high on this anxiety outcome. Intolerance of uncertainty predicted changes in social (audience) anxiety but not changes in OCD symptoms or worry. These findings support the looming vulnerability theory of anxiety, and encourage further attention into the possible role of the LCS as a cognitive antecedent and moderator of changes in a spectrum of anxiety syndromes.

Direction of stimulus movement alters fear-linked individual differences in attentional vigilance to spider stimuli.

Researchers have proposed that high spider-fearful individuals are characterised by heightened attentional vigilance to spider stimuli, as compared to low spider-fearful individuals. However, these findings have arisen from methodologies that have uniformly employed only static stimuli. Such findings do not inform upon the patterns of fear-linked attentional selectivity that occur in the face of moving feared stimuli. Hence, the present study developed a novel methodology designed to examine the influence of stimulus movement on attentional vigilance to spider and non-spider stimuli. Eighty participants who varied in level of spider-fear completed an attentional-probe task that presented stimuli under two conditions. One condition presented stimuli that displayed an approaching movement, while the other condition presented stimuli that displayed a receding movement. Fear-linked heightened attentional vigilance was observed exclusively under the latter condition. These findings suggest that fear-linked attentional vigilance to spider stimuli does not represent a uniform characteristic of heightened spider-fear, but rather is influenced by stimulus context. The means by which these findings inform understanding of attentional mechanisms that characterise heightened spider-fear, and avenues for future research, are discussed.

Cognitive vulnerabilities in parents as a potential risk factor for anxiety symptoms in young adult offspring: An exploration of looming cognitive style.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Given that anxiety runs in families, it is critical to understand the cognitive factors that may be responsible for this intergenerational transmission. The present study offers a first step by exploring the link between mother and father tendencies to view potentially threatening situations as rapidly escalating toward dreaded outcomes (i.e., looming cognitive style) and the emotional disturbances and looming cognitive styles of their adult offspring. METHODS: We assessed cognitive vulnerabilities, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample (N = 382) of Italian college students and their parents. RESULTS: The looming cognitive style of fathers, but not mothers, was significantly related to greater anxiety in adult offspring. This finding was obtained for both sons and daughters, and remained even after statistically controlling for the anxiety, worry, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity (AS) of parents). Notably, the association between fathers' looming cognitive style and offspring symptoms was not related to their child's depressive symptoms, and similar to prior work, served as a cognitive marker specific to anxiety. LIMITATIONS: The present study relied on a cross-sectional design and did not use clients diagnosed with anxiety disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that it may prove fruitful to consider parental vulnerabilities such as looming cognitive styles in comprehensive cognitive and interpersonal models of anxiety. The intergenerational transmission of emotional difficulties seems to extend beyond anxiety to beliefs about the escalation of threat.

The Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire: Measurement invariance and relations to anxiety and depression across 10 countries.

The Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ) is a self-report measure designed to assess the looming cognitive style, a tendency to interpret threats as rapidly approaching and increasing in magnitude. To date, no systematic evaluation on the psychometric properties of the LMSQ across diverse cultural contexts has been done. In the present research, the measurement invariance of the LMSQ test scores was examined in 10 countries (N=4000). Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that a two-factor model (i.e., physical looming and social looming) fitted the data well across countries. Partial measurement invariance was established for the LMSQ scores across the countries whereas full measurement invariance was achieved across gender. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling was applied to examine the unique contributions of the two looming factors to anxiety and depression symptoms. Results indicated that the test scores underlying two looming factors were crucial and valid predictors of symptoms. The LMSQ shows promise as a measure with cross-cultural generalizability and opens new avenues for its use in diverse cultural settings.

Dysfunctional Freezing Responses to Approaching Stimuli in Persons with a Looming Cognitive Style for Physical Threats.

Immobilizing freezing responses are associated with anxiety and may be etiologically related to several anxiety disorders. Although recent studies have sought to investigate the underlying mechanisms in freezing responses that are so problematic in many forms of anxiety, cognitive factors related to anxiety have not been investigated. This study was designed to investigate the potential moderating role of a well-documented cognitive vulnerability to anxiety, the Looming Cognitive Style (i.e., LCS; Riskind et al., 2000), which assesses the extent to which individuals tend to routinely interpret ambiguous threats (e.g., physical or social threats) in a biased manner as approaching. We assessed participants' Reaction Times (RTs) when they made judgments about images of animals that differed in threat valence (threat or neutral) and motion direction (approach or recede). As expected, LCS for concerns about the approach of physical dangers appeared to moderate freeze reactions. Individuals who were high on this LCS factor tended to generally exhibit a freeze-response (slower RTs) and this was independent of the threat valence or motion direction of the animals. These general freezing reactions were in stark contrast to those of individuals who were low on the LCS factor for concerns about the approach of physical dangers. These participants tended to exhibit more selective and functional freezing responses that occurred only to threatening animals with approach motion; they did not exhibit freezing to neutral stimuli or any stimuli with receding motion. These findings did not appear to be explicable by a general slowing of RTs for the participants with high LCS. Moreover, the LCS factor for concerns about social threats (such as rejection or embarrassment) was not related to differences in freezing; there was also no additional relationship of freezing to behavioral inhibition scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System and the Behavioral Activation System Scales (BIS/BAS). It may prove fruitful to further explore cognitive factors related to anxiety to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how these factors are associated with anxiety-related freezing responses.

The looming maladaptive style predicts shared variance in anxiety disorder symptoms: further support for a cognitive model of vulnerability to anxiety.

Looming vulnerability pertains to a distinct cognitive phenomenology characterized by mental representations of dynamically intensifying danger and rapidly rising risk as one projects the self into an anticipated future [J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 79 (2000) 837]. While looming appraisals can be experienced as state elicitation, some individuals are hypothesized to develop an enduring cognitive pattern of cross-situational looming appraisals, the looming maladaptive style (LMS), which functions as a cognitive vulnerability to anxiety. In the present study, we examined the extent to which the LMS predicts common variance in numerous anxiety disorder symptoms, independent of the potentially confounding effects of current depressive symptoms. Specifically, we hypothesized that controlling for depressive symptoms, LMS would predict shared variance in a latent factor comprised of indicators of five anxiety disorder symptoms: obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and specific phobic fears. Measures of these anxiety disorder symptoms, depressive symptoms, and looming vulnerability were administered to unselected college student population. Structural equations modeling analyses provided support for our hypothesis that LMS predicts shared variance in anxiety disorder symptoms and suggest that this cognitive style may be an overarching dimension of vulnerability to anxiety.

Test of an hypothesized structural model of the relationships between cognitive style and social anxiety: a 12-month prospective study.

The aim of this study was to test whether social looming cognitive style accounts for the predictive association between early maladaptive schema domains and social anxiety. We predicted that early maladaptive schema domains would predict the increase of social anxiety over time and that social looming would act as a mediator between schema domains and social anxiety. A three-wave longitudinal design was used. The participants (N=471, 56.95% women) were Spanish adolescents and young adults aged between 16 and 25 years old (Mage=17.81, SD age=3.19). The results showed that three schema domains (impaired autonomy and performance, impaired limits, and other-directedness) predicted the increase in social anxiety and that LCS for social threat acted as a mediator between other-directedness and social anxiety at T3. These results are important to improve the knowledge of the cognitive mechanisms that are involved in the occurrence and development of social anxiety.

Depression as a mediator of negative cognitive style and hopelessness in stress generation.

Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable interest in the role of cognitive factors in the stress generation process. Generally, these studies find that depressed individuals, or individuals at cognitive risk for depression, are more likely to experience stressful life events that are in part influenced by their own characteristics and behaviours (i.e., negative dependent events). However, there is still much to be learnt about the mediators of these effects. For example, does the development of depression symptoms explain why individuals at cognitive risk for depression experience increased negative dependent events? Or, is it that increases in cognitive risk explain why depressed individuals experience increased negative dependent events? To explore these questions, a short-term prospective study was conducted with 209 college students who were given measures of depression, depressogenic risk factors (i.e., negative cognitive style and hopelessness), and negative dependent events at two time points 6 weeks apart. Support was found for three models: (1) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events; (2) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between hopelessness and negative dependent events; and (3) first hopelessness and then depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events in a multiple-step model. In contrast, the reverse models were not confirmed, suggesting specificity in the direction of the mediational sequence.

Negative cognitive style and looming cognitive style synergistically predict stress generation.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that cognitive vulnerabilities to depression or anxiety may lead individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events. However, there has been no study to date that examines the effects of co-occurring vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety. In a sample of 304 participants, we examined the potential interaction of co-occurring negative cognitive style, a vulnerability to depression and looming cognitive style, vulnerability to anxiety. Results indicate that co-occurring cognitive vulnerabilities synergistically predict higher levels of negative interpersonal life events six weeks later, even when controlling for initial levels of stressful life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Thus, co-occurring vulnerabilities may have stronger stress generating effects than would be expected from the additive effects of each vulnerability considered separately. This finding highlights the importance of examining cognitive vulnerabilities as interactive effects rather than as individual vulnerabilities.

Influence of anxiety, depression and looming cognitive style on auditory looming perception.

Previous studies show that individuals with an anticipatory auditory looming bias over-estimate the closeness of a sound source that approaches them. Our present study bridges cognitive clinical and perception research, and provides evidence that anxiety symptoms and a particular putative cognitive style that creates vulnerability for anxiety (looming cognitive style, or LCS) are related to how people perceive this ecologically fundamental auditory warning signal. The effects of anxiety symptoms on the anticipatory auditory looming effect synergistically depend on the dimension of perceived personal danger assessed by the LCS (physical or social threat). Depression symptoms, in contrast to anxiety symptoms, predict a diminution of the auditory looming bias. Findings broaden our understanding of the links between cognitive-affective states and auditory perception processes and lend further support to past studies providing evidence that the looming cognitive style is related to bias in threat processing.

Integrating the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide into the depression/suicidal ideation relationship: a short-term prospective study.

We examined the hypothesis that depressive symptoms are associated with increased beliefs about perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness identified in the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide and that these beliefs are associated with changes in suicidal ideation. Participants with clinical levels of depressive symptoms (n=299) were selected from a larger group (n=508) and completed measures of depressive symptoms, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and suicidal ideation twice over a period of 2 months. Results of a structural equation model found that depressive symptoms were associated with increases in burdensomeness and lack of belonging, which were associated with suicidal ideation. Moreover, this hypothesized integrated model demonstrated a significantly better fit than an alternative model that assumed burdensomeness and lack of belonging were associated with changes in depressive symptoms, which were associated with suicidal ideation. Our findings suggest that the well-established relationship between depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation is associated with changes in beliefs that one is a burden on others and lacks belonging. More generally, these results suggest that it may be fruitful to integrate theories of suicide risk to form a comprehensive model that can inform future research and clinical interventions.

Social support and positive events as suicide resiliency factors: examination of synergistic buffering effects.

This study examines the role of social support and positive events as protective factors in suicide. Participants (n = 379) were administered measures of social support, life events, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. Results indicated that (1) social support had a direct protective effect on suicide ideation, (2) social support and positive events acted as individual buffers in the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation, and (3) social support and positive events synergistically buffered the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation. Our results provide evidence that positive events and social support act as protective factors against suicide individually and synergistically when they co-occur.

Psychometric properties of the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R) in young Spanish adults.

BACKGROUND: The looming cognitive style (LCS) is a specific putative cognitive vulnerability to anxiety but not to depression. LCS is assessed by the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R), which assesses a tendency to generate, maintain, and attend to internally generated scenarios of threats as rapidly increasing and headed in one's direction. This study investigated the structure, measurement invariance across subsamples, concurrent validity, consistency, and stability of a Spanish translation of the LMSQ-R. METHOD: LMSQ-R was examined in a large sample of Spanish students (n = 1,128, 56.47% women). A subsample of 675 was followed-up six months later. The participants also completed measures of social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression. RESULTS: The results provide evidence from factor analyses confirming two second-order factors (social and physical threat). Multiple-group analysis indicated the measurement invariance of the model for men and women and for groups that displayed clinically significant generalized social anxiety and those that did not. Women scored higher on the LMSQ-R. Partial correlation analyses indicated that LMSQ-R scales were independently associated with symptoms of generalized and social anxiety but they were not independently associated with depression. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the LMSQ-R has shown good psychometric properties.

Cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability to suicidal ideation: a weakest link approach.

In contrast with traditional models of risk for suicidal ideation that combine multiple vulnerability components into one composite measure, weakest link perspectives posit that individuals are as vulnerable as their most vulnerable component (or "weakest link"). Such a perspective has been applied to depression, but has not been evaluated with respect to suicidal ideation. Thus, the goal of the present study was to apply a weakest link perspective to the study of suicidal ideation. We hypothesized that an individual's "weakest link" among vulnerability components from the hopelessness theory (HT) and interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) would interact with high levels of stress to predict increases in suicidal ideation over a 6-week period better than the traditional conceptualizations of HT or IPTS. Participants were 171 college students who completed measures of cognitive vulnerability, stress, and suicidal ideation twice over a period of 6 weeks. Bayesian regression analyses supported our hypotheses. The data fit the weakest link model using HT and IPTS components better than traditional conceptualizations of HT and IPTS. This study implies that weakest link models from depression may be useful in understanding which individuals are most vulnerable to experiencing suicidal ideation in the context of stress.

Utilized social support and self-esteem mediate the relationship between perceived social support and suicide ideation. A test of a multiple mediator model.

BACKGROUND: While perceived social support has received considerable research as a protective factor for suicide ideation, little attention has been given to the mechanisms that mediate its effects. AIMS: We integrated two theoretical models, Joiner's (2005) interpersonal theory of suicide and Leary's (Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995) sociometer theory of self-esteem to investigate two hypothesized mechanisms, utilization of social support and self-esteem. Specifically, we hypothesized that individuals must utilize the social support they perceive that would result in increased self-esteem, which in turn buffers them from suicide ideation. METHOD: Participants were 172 college students who completed measures of social support, self-esteem, and suicide ideation. RESULTS: Tests of simple mediation indicate that utilization of social support and self-esteem may each individually help to mediate the perceived social support/suicide ideation relationship. Additionally, a test of multiple mediators using bootstrapping supported the hypothesized multiple-mediator model. LIMITATIONS: The use of a cross-sectional design limited our ability to find true cause-and-effect relationships. CONCLUSION: Results suggested that utilized social support and self-esteem both operate as individual moderators in the social support/self-esteem relationship. Results further suggested, in a comprehensive model, that perceived social support buffers suicide ideation through utilization of social support and increases in self-esteem.