10 years of published research on mood-as-input and perseverative worrying: Implications for GADGraham DaveyUniversity of Sussex

Negative mood is known to increase perseveration at a worry bout (e.g. Johnston & Davey, 1997; Buhr & Dugas, 2009) – but what is the mechanism through which negative mood has this effect?

The Catastrophizing Interview1. I’m worried about not being able to move2. That I would be attacked in some way3. That I would not be able to fight back4. That I would not be able to control what other people did to me5. That I would feel inadequate6. That other people would begin to think I was inadequate7. I would not be respected8. That I would not have any influence over others9. That other people would not listen to me10. That it would cause a loss of self-esteem11. This would have a negative effect on my relationships12. That I would lose friends13. That I would be alone14. That I would have no-one to talk to15. I would not be able to share any thoughts/problems with others16. That I would not get advice from others17. That none of my problems would be adequately sorted out18. That they would remain and get worse19. That eventually I would not be able to cope with them20. My problems would have more control over me21. That they would prevent me from doing other things22. That I would be unable to meet new people and make friends23. That I would be lonely

Johnston & Davey (1997)

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Testing Mood Congruency Effects

• Mood-Congruent Recall• Negative Mood & Semantic Priming• Mood-as-Input Hypothesis

Startup & Davey (2001)

Mood-as-Input Hypothesis

• Martin & Davies (1998)• Stop Rules• The Role of Mood as Information

What are stop rules?

• Relate to Task Motivation• Performance Focused OR Task Focused• ‘Enough’ OR ‘Enjoy’• ‘As Many as Can’ (AMA) OR ‘Feel Like Continuing’ (FL)

What do we know about stop rules?

• Often not easily verbalizable• Can often be derived from dispositional characteristics or

meta-beliefs about emotional control strategies• Stop rule type is linked to mood• Stop rules interact with mood to determine perseveration at a

task (the ‘Mood-as-Input Hypothesis’, Davey, 2006, Startup & Davey, 2001).

What is the Role of Mood?

• Concurrent mood becomes a source of information about achieving task goals

• Mood valency will interact with stop rule to determine task perseveration

• Psychopathology-relevant tasks are frequently conducted under conditions of ‘as many as can’ stop rules and negative mood

Predictions from Mood-as-Input Hypothesis

• Pathological worriers will experience negative mood while worrying

• Pathological worriers will deploy ‘as many as can’ stop rules for worrying

• Manipulating stop rules for worrying will affect worry perseveration

• Manipulating mood valency without changing stop rules will also affect worry perseveration

Manipulating Stop RulesStartup & Davey (2001)

Implications

• Worriers do not have a perseverative iterative style that is independent of the stop rules they deploy (Kendall & Ingram, 1987; Davey & Levy, 1998)

• The nature of the ‘stop rules’ deployed have a causal influence on worry perseveration

‘Responsibility’ and stop rules

• Worriers possess elevated levels of ‘inflated responsibility’ for outcomes (Papageorgiou & Wells, 2001)

• Naturally occurring and experimentally manipulated responsibility should affect perseveration

Startup & Davey (2003)

Worry Stop Rule ChecklistAMA – ‘Enough’

• I must find a solution to this problem, so keep thinking about it.

• I must try and think about the worst possible outcome, just in case it happens

• I must think everything through properly

FL – ‘Enjoy’

• What’s done is done, so what’s the point in worrying?

• I don’t have time to think about this now

• Stop worrying, things always work out for the best.

Davey, Startup, MacDonald, Jenkins & Patterson (2005)

What ends a worry bout?

• Mood-as-Input Hypothesis predicts that worry will stop:• If mood becomes more positive• If stop rules change from ‘as many as can’ to ‘feel like continuing’

What ends a worry bout? - Mood changes during worrying

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Changes in Stop Rule EndorsementDavey, Eldridge, Drost & MacDonald (2007)

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Empirical Facts• Mood interacts with stop rules to generate worry

perseveration• Manipulating worry stop rules affects worry perseveration –

even in high worriers• Worriers do not have a perseverative iterative style that is

independent of the stop rules they deploy • Characteristics of worriers (e.g. responsibility) interact with

concurrent negative mood to generate worry perseveration• PSWQ scores are correlated with measures of the deployment

of ‘as many as can’ worry stop rules• The end of worry bouts is associated with changes in stop rule

deployment rather than changes in mood valency

Challenges• Conducting mood-as-input studies on clinical populations with

a diagnosis of GAD• Testing the ecological validity of the catastrophizing interview

procedure• Integrating mood-as-input findings with existing theories and

models of GAD• Exploring the role of mood-as-input processes in the

development of pathological worrying and GAD