Neuroticism to GAD: The Influence of Thought Processes and Metacognitions

Abstract

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) consists of chronic, distressing worry across multiple areas. Neuroticism, the personality trait of negative emotionality, has been proposed to contribute to GAD through several maladaptive thought processes. One such process is anxiety sensitivity (AS); the fear of anxiety and its consequences. Another is intolerance of uncertainty (IU); the perceived inability to cope with uncertain events. Two metacognitions known to be related to GAD are positive beliefs about worry (PBW), which are beliefs that worrying is beneficial, and negative beliefs about worry (NBW), which are beliefs that worrying is harmful or uncontrollable. Our first study investigated if PBW and NBW would moderate the relationship between AS and GAD. Based on data from 573 students, several negative moderations were found. However, these data were affected by students’ high scores on the GAD measures. Our second study addressed and built upon this by sampling 624 participants from the Canadian general population. Here we found that neuroticism led to AS and IU, which led to GAD symptoms and higher worry severity. These results are consistent with past research on the pathways between neuroticism and GAD. Further, when examining worry severity, NBW positively moderated the effect of a subfactor of IU, while PBW negatively moderated the effect of a subfactor of AS. These findings expand upon past research by suggesting that metacognitions may moderate the relationships AS and IU have with GAD. This suggests that metacognitions may be an important component of treatments for GAD that target AS or IU.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alexander Penney