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Worry, Thoughts, and Images: A New Conceptualization

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Generative Mental Processes and Cognitive Resources

Abstract

The present chapter addresses the relations between worry, thoughts, and images. It is organized into three parts. Part one outlines T. D. Borkovec’s avoidance theory of worry and reviews the evidence concerning a central hypothesis of avoidance theory, namely that worry reduces aversive imagery. Part two considers two mechanisms by which worry may reduce imagery, namely limitation of processing resources and verbal abstraction. Moreover, as there is little evidence for the first, but some evidence for the latter, part two presents a new conceptual model of the relations between worry, thoughts, and images. Part three presents a brief outline beyond anxiety research on how avoidance theory and the verbal abstraction hypothesis may relate to the phenomenon of ruminative coping with depression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Greifswald, Germany

    Joachim Stöber

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  1. Joachim Stöber
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Correspondence to Joachim Stöber .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Potsdam, Germany

    Ulrich von Hecker

  2. University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Stephan Dutke

  3. Warsaw School of Advanced Social Psychology, Poland

    Grzegorz Sedek

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Stöber, J. (2000). Worry, Thoughts, and Images: A New Conceptualization. In: von Hecker, U., Dutke, S., Sedek, G. (eds) Generative Mental Processes and Cognitive Resources. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4373-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4373-8_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5880-3

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