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A growing body of literature supports the relationship between pathological worry and deleterious health consequences, including having a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; Waters & Craske, 2005). Individuals who suffer from pathological worry tend to live life in the future rather than in the present moment. Mindfulness, a practice grounded in the acceptance of present-moment experience, can therefore be conceptualized as the antithesis of worry. Thus, the current study aimed to better understand the interplay between mindfulness and pathological worry and the potential role of mindfulness practice in reducing pathological worry. This study examined the effect of a brief mindful breathing practice and an expressive writing exercise on psychological health outcomes in a sample of college students with pathological worry. The study aimed to replicate findings that expressive writing is helpful for individuals with pathological worry, and it aimed to test the hypothesis (Brody & Park, 2004) that expressive writing itself is a process conceptually similar to mindfulness. Participants practiced either a mindful breathing exercise or a relaxation exercise prior to engaging in three consecutive sessions of either expressive writing or a control writing exercise. It was expected that individuals who practiced mindfulness and engaged in expressive writing would have lower levels of depression, worry, and GAD symptoms as well as increased levels of self-reported mindfulness when assessed one month after completing the study, but these hypotheses were not supported. It was found, however, that individuals who engaged in expressive writing demonstrated a decrease in negative affect over time compared to those who engaged in control writing. Furthermore, those who engaged in mindfulness practice compared to those who engaged in relaxation practice reported higher levels of mindful awareness directly following the writing sessions. The study has the practical implication of understanding the utility of brief mindfulness practice to alleviate symptoms of worry and GAD in a sample of non-treatment-seeking high worriers. / Psychology

Anxiety and its cognitive component of worry have been related to exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity and delayed recovery to laboratory stressors, and to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Previous research on the anxiety-cardiovascular system relationship, including data from Knepp and Friedman (2008), are included to support this project. Two experiments were completed during the course of this study. The first consisted of two peripheral-based body positioning tasks. The second experiment used an active versus passive sympathetic stress task paradigm (mental arithmetic, hand cold pressor). Subjects were nonsmokers free of cardiovascular and neurological disease. Trait worry was examined through the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Blood pressure recordings and cardiac recordings through ECG and ICG were done in each experiment during seven epochs: an anticipatory baseline with three baselines preceding and three recovery periods following each task. Repeated measures analysis was run on all cardiovascular measures. In the first experiment, high worriers had worsened blood pressure reactivity to task. The second experiment found that high worriers had increased stroke volume across all epochs. There were mixed findings in the studies relating to subjects acclimated to the laboratory experience. Future directions of research relating anxiety, worry, and cardiovascular risk factors are discussed. / Ph. D.

Anxiety and worry have been related to exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity and delayed recovery to laboratory stressors, and to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This study examined cardiovascular responses in high and low worriers to a range of laboratory tasks. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a task-specific relationship between worry and aberrant cardiovascular responding. Forty-one undergraduate women were recruited online to form low and high worry groups by use of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Four common laboratory tasks and two conditions designed to elicit worry and relaxation were used: hand cold pressor, mental arithmetic, orthostatic position, supine position, worry imagery, and relaxation imagery. Heart rate, heart rate variability, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure indices were collected to assess task reactivity and recovery, particularly in relation to autonomic nervous system activity. The high worry group had significantly higher heart rates throughout the study. The low worry group presented increased cardiovascular recovery to various tasks. The high worry group during task and post-task periods also increased parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic activation. The results of the study suggest that high worriers have decreased vagal control of the heart. The implications of this study suggest a potential link between the post-task period in high worriers and cardiovascular disease. Further research is recommended. / Master of Science

Many individuals with emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression experience repetitive negative thinking (RNT), defined as recurrent, difficult-to-control negative thoughts. RNT is a transdiagnostic process that occurs across most emotional disorders and contributes to their onset and maintenance. To date, little is known about what specific treatment skills most effectively reduce RNT. The current study uses single-case experimental design to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two brief cognitive skills at reducing RNT: restructuring and defusion. Restructuring and defusion have been found equally effective at reducing the frequency of certain types of negative thoughts; however, existing group-based research designs potentially obscure important individual differences in their effectiveness. Furthermore, these skills have not been studied as treatments for RNT. Patients (N = 8) were recruited from a community outpatient clinic waitlist. All met criteria for at least one emotional disorder and reported elevated RNT. They completed four sessions of each treatment skill in a counterbalanced order after a two- or four-week assessment-only period. During the assessment period, they completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys capturing moment-to-moment changes in RNT, negative affect, and positive affect. It was hypothesized that restructuring and defusion would both reduce RNT, that they would each be associated with change on a specific corresponding mechanism, and that changes in RNT would precede changes in depression and anxiety symptoms. On average, restructuring and defusion were associated with a similar reduction in RNT, although there were clear differences in skill effectiveness across patients. Furthermore, there were individual differences in whether each skill was associated with change in the corresponding mechanism, suggesting that there may be some overlap in how these skills work. Additionally, although changes in RNT and symptoms were significantly correlated in the majority of the sample, changes in RNT did not temporally precede changes in symptoms for most patients. EMA results highlighted individual differences in associations between RNT, positive affect, and negative affect both within and across time points. Overall, this study points to the importance of idiographic research in extending our understanding of RNT and its treatment.

This study hypothesized a direct relationship among three verbal phenomena: derived relational responding, verbal intelligence, and worry. It also hypothesized that experiential avoidance would mediate the relationship between derived relational responding and worry. Overall, results from this study failed to support a relationship between worry and the other two verbal phenomena, however, results did support a relationship between derived relational responding and verbal intelligence. Additionally, results indicated a significant relationship between experiential avoidance and worry. Future research should clarify the relationship among the three primary variables of interest, improve measurement of these variables, be more sensitive to external validity, and promote the study of acceptance-based treatments that target experiential avoidance.