Our knowledge of successful treatment for anxiety disorders continues to advance at an accelerated pace. This progress is due to the hundreds of research studies that have existed to date and especially to the studies on anxiety that are open. Many of these studies are dedicated to testing and developing effective treatment approaches. Below we explain some of the most popular anxiety theories.
Theories of anxiety
Many of these contributions have referred to the relationship between information processing and emotion. Although various theories have been postulated, there are 3 basic guidelines:
- Bioinformational processing of images and affects (Lang).
- Concept of associative network (Bower).
- Scheme concept (Beck).
The 3 models are based on the belief that there are cognitive structures related to anxiety disorders.
Emotion and image: Bioinformational processing
It is based on a “descriptionalist” conception of the emotional image. Lang:
- It assumes that all information, including mental images, is encoded in the brain in an abstract and uniform way (not in an iconic or analogous way).
- It proposes that emotional images are conceptualized as propositional structures and not as sensory representations.
Information about anxiety is stored in the MLP in associative networks (emotional networks) = propositional networks. For bioinformational theory, the way in which information is stored is not relevant, but rather the types of information stored and the results produced by the activation of said information. The network can be activated by inputs. When a sufficient number of network “nodes” are accessed, the entire network is activated, giving rise to a variety of behaviors and experiences called emotion. Certain elements of the network may have high associative power, so that the activation of very few key nodes is enough to access the complete program. Emotional memory contains three types of information:
- Information about external stimuli: Information about the physical characteristics of external stimuli (appearance of an animal).
- Information about responses: Includes facial expression or verbal behavior, overt actions of approach or avoidance, and visceral and somatic changes that support attention and action.
- Semantic propositions: Information that defines the meaning of the object or situation and the responses, the probabilities of the stimulus occurring, and the consequences of the action.
The units of analysis of bioinformation theory are propositions (units of information that constitute logical relationships between concepts). A proposition (“Nuria reads a book”) is composed of “nodes” or arguments (Nuria and book), and a relational or preaching element (reads). The propositions are grouped in networks, the networks constitute a associative structure or associative memory of emotion. It constitutes a kind of “affective program.” Affective expression occurs when a sufficient number of propositions are activated. In the psychological treatment of phobias, emotional memory is generally activated through verbal input (script). Lang suggests that for the emotional response of fear there is a
IMAGE PROTOTYPE OF FEAR encoded in the MLP. The prototype can be activated by instructions, by means of communication or by objective sensory stimuli. An important characteristic of the phobia prototype is that it includes information about the responses, that is, a program about the affective expression or set of action (e.g. avoidance/escape). Certain propositions have very strong associations between themselves -> they can act as keys for the processing of the network and the corresponding action subprograms. Not all anxiety disorders are equally integrated with the different components of associative memory:
- The specific phobia: Highly organized networks, with high associative strength -> Strong disposition for escape and avoidance as part of the phobic prototype. Social phobia: Networks defined by surveillance and concerns about valuation.
- agoraphobia: Networks with little associative strength and therefore more difficult to activate.
Lang suggests basic dimensions of behavior such as:
- Valencia (pleasure – displeasure).
- Power (dominance – submission).
- Activation (arousal – rest).
In the latest revision, they introduce the distinction between.
- Strategic responses: They can be described in terms of valence and activation.
- Tactical responses: They are more related to the concepts of dominance and submission (power).
Theory has emphasized the importance of response-based anxiety therapy: it should be more effective than stimulus-oriented therapy because it determines a more complete activation of the propositional structure.
Foa and Kozak: The concept of meaning should not be reduced to semantic propositions, but should include all information (semantically and non-semantically encoded). His perspective could be understood as a theory on fear reduction, based on Lang’s basic principles: Information processing is an essential step in anxiety therapy. They understand emotional processing as a modification of memory structures, rather than as a mere activation.
Through emotional processing, a correction of associative networks is carried out. The correction occurs when, as fear is reduced through exposure, the information is incompatible with that of the associative network (contradicts the network’s propositions).
Traditional psychoanalytic theory proposed that individuals avoided anxiety-inducing thoughts and memories. Brewin suggests that change depends on such memories being readmitted to consciousness with “appropriate affect.”
Cognitive biases and anxiety
Both Beck and Bower assume that: In patients with an anxiety disorder, there must be a dysfunctional cognitive structure that leads them to produce certain biases in all aspects of information processing. They have developed their theory thinking more about depression than anxiety. BECK:
- There is a dysfunctional SCHEME that plays an essential role in the development and maintenance of depression and anxiety.
- Individuals with anxiety disorders have a systematic bias: selective activation of the schema associated with personal danger, represented in the MLP. The schemes are organized into subsystems or constellations (modes) that correspond to different motivational aspects (depressive, erotic, fear, danger). The reasons why dominance of a certain mode persists are not sufficiently explained.
Bower’s associative network theory
Emotions are represented in memory in units or nodes, in the form of an associative network (semantic network):
- The nodes are related to other types of information: relevant situations to elicit emotion, visceral reactions, memories of pleasant or unpleasant events, etc.
- Activation of an emotional node facilitates accessibility to mood-congruent material -> Mood Congruence Hypothesis.
- Memorized material is best remembered when there is coupling between the conditions under which it was originally learned and the conditions under which it is intended to be remembered -> Mood dependence hypothesis.
There is controversy about the viability of the hypotheses derived from the Beck and Bower models. Beck and Bower agree that biases operate at different processing levels: attention, interpretation and memory. Experimental data tend to indicate that:
- Anxiety seems to be associated with attention biases but not to memory biases. Depression seems to be associated with explicit memory biases and not attention biases.
- According to Williams: Anxiety is primarily associated with integration biases (automatic processes and initial phases of processing).
- Depression is primarily associated with elaboration biases.
Anxiety and selective attention
Main paradigms used to investigate possible attentional biases in patients with anxiety disorders:
- Dichotic listening: Simultaneous presentation of 2 auditory messages, having to attend to one of them.
- Stroop test: Saying the color of a word that does not match its meaning (word “blue” that appears written in green) -> An increase in RT called Stroop interference occurs.
Modified Stroop: It is carried out with words that have an emotionally salient meaning (“fear”, “snake”).
Patients with anxiety should exhibit increased interference (latency) congruent with the relevant stimuli, since the meaning of the word automatically attracts attention.
In these two paradigms, the mechanisms that underlie attentional biases. * Reaction time tasks: Makes it possible to eliminate the possible effect induced by multiple processes such as verbal response (in Stroop) or verbal memory (in dichotic listening). These are tests of visual word processing and directed attention.
Individuals with anxiety disorders should present lower latencies than other individuals when the point is located in the area of emotionally congruent words -> Threatening-relevant words are detected more quickly by anxious subjects (selective attention).
There is an attentional bias in anxious patients towards threat signals. When words are equal in emotionality, there are no differences: It may be because certain positive words have “related emotionality” (The word “relaxed” has emotionality related to “nervous”).
Most positive data (support attentional bias -> specific congruency hypothesis: Specific threats can differentiate subjects with threat-congruent anxiety disorder) correspond to research with patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. It has also been associated with trait and state anxiety (non-clinical subjects). Recently, it has been associated with: social phobias, panic disorder, specific phobias and post-traumatic stress.
Importance of automatic (non-conscious) processing: Studies, based on dichotic listening and Stroop tests, seem to demonstrate that the attentional bias linked to anxiety is determined by mechanisms that operate at a non-conscious, non-intentional and automatic level (pre-attentive level). ). The priming effect (a past experience facilitates the performance of a task that does not require deliberate recall of such experience), observed in some research on implicit memory and anxiety, has been considered evidence of selective automatic processing typical of anxiety.
Conclusion derived from works on implicit and explicit memory (they use strategic and elaboration processes, in contrast to automatic and integration processes) is that: Anxiety is associated…