A review of recent research on cognitive processing indicates that biases in attention, memory, and interpretation, as well as repetitive negative thoughts, are common across emotional disorders, although they vary in form according to type of disorder. Current cognitive models emphasize specific forms of biased processing, such as variations in the focus of attention or habitual interpretative styles that contribute to the risk of developing particular disorders. As well as predicting risk of emotional disorders, new studies haveprovided evidence of a causal relationship between processing bias and vulnerability. Beyond merely demonstrating the existence of biased processing, research is thus beginning to explore the cognitive causes of emotional vulnerability, and their modification.

Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Disorders

Fearing the unknown: A short version of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale

Psychological theories of posttraumatic stress disorder

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has established itself as one of the most effective therapies for treating a wide range of psychological disorders. However, research and treatment in this field typically adopts a DSM driven 'disorder-focused' approach - researchers and clinicians target a specific disorder, try to understand its aetiology and maintenance, and try to develop more effective strategies to treat the disorder. This book proposes an insightful and original approach to understanding these disorders, one that focuses on what they have in common. Instead of examining in isolation, for example, obsessive compulsive disorders, insomnia, schizophrenia, it asks - what do patients with these disorders have in common? It takes each cognitive and behavioural process - attention, memory, reasoning, thought, behaviour, and examines whether it is a transdiagnostic process - i.e., serves to maintain a broad range of psychological disorders. Having shown how these disorders share several important processes, it then describes the practical implications of such an approach to diagnosis and treatment. Importantly it explores why the different psychological disorders can present so differently, despite being maintained by the same cognitive and behavioural processes. It also provides an account of the high rates of comorbidity observed among the different disorders. This book provides a novel review and integration of the empirical literature and gives clinicians and researchers a valuable new theoretical base for assessing and treating psychological disorders. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has established itself as one of the most effective therapies for treating a wide range of psychological disorders. However, research and treatment in this field typically adopts a DSM driven 'disorder-focused' approach - researchers and clinicians target a specific disorder, try to understand its aetiology and maintenance, and try to develop more effective strategies to treat the disorder. This book proposes an insightful and original approach to understanding these disorders, one that focuses on what they have in common. Instead of examining in isolation, for example, obsessive compulsive disorders, insomnia, schizophrenia, it asks - what do patients with these disorders have in common? It takes each cognitive and behavioural process - attention, memory, reasoning, thought, behaviour, and examines whether it is a transdiagnostic process - i.e., serves to maintain a broad range of psychological disorders. Having shown how these disorders share several important processes, it then describes the practical implications of such an approach to diagnosis and treatment. Importantly it explores why the different psychological disorders can present so differently, despite being maintained by the same cognitive and behavioural processes. It also provides an account of the high rates of comorbidity observed among the different disorders. This book provides a novel review and integration of the empirical literature and gives clinicians and researchers a valuable new theoretical base for assessing and treating psychological disorders.

Cognitive Behavioural Processes across Psychological Disorders: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Research and Treatment

Rethinking interference theory: Executive control and the mechanisms of forgetting.

Intolerance of uncertainty in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Memory and memory confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Thought-action fusion in individuals with OCD symptoms.

This study examines the relationship among features of social relationships, both negative and positive, and later posttrauma pathology. Using a prospective design, 142 female victims of sexual or nonsexual assault were assessed at both 2 weeks and 3 months following the assault. We examined self-reported perceptions of how often the participant has been the recipient of socially supportive actions by others and how often the participant has been engaged in interpersonal friction with others. Degree of interpersonal friction shortly after the assault predicted PTSD severity 3 months later. On the contrary, positive social support did not predict later PTSD severity. These results are consistent with previous studies that underscore the association between negative features of social relationships and PTSD.

Interpersonal friction and PTSD in female victims of sexual and nonsexual assault.

Laboratory studies using word-list paradigms have provided evidence that nontraumatized individuals falsely recall or recognize events that never occurred In the present study, H L Roediger and K B McDermott's false-memory paradigm (1995) was utilized to examine possible source monitoring deficits in individuals with PTSD Traumatized individuals with PTSD were compared with traumatized individuals without PTSD and with nontraumatized control participants Participants heard lists of related words (eg, bed, night) that were associates of a critical nonpresented word (eg, sleep) and were given immediate free recall and later recognition tests Traumatized participants with and without PTSD generated more false recalls of critical nonpresented words than did nontraumatized participants False recall was related to trait anxiety and PTSD severity The results are consistent with a general source-monitoring deficit in trauma-exposed individuals

Bartholomew D. Brigidi

Papers

Intolerance of uncertainty in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Memory and memory confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Thought-action fusion in individuals with OCD symptoms.

Interpersonal friction and PTSD in female victims of sexual and nonsexual assault.

Are trauma victims susceptible to "false memories"?