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Gim Y. Toh's MA Thesis.pdf (506.84 KB)

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Why Does Effortful Control Moderate the Relationship between Worry and Subjective Reports of Physiological Hyperarousal?

Toh, Gim Y.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406042382

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Psychology.
The Cognitive Avoidance model (Borkovec, Alcaine, & Behar, 2004) predicts that individuals with GAD will experience low levels of physiological hyperarousal (PH) symptoms while the Contrast Avoidance model (Newman & Llera, 2011) predicts the opposite. Yet, neither theory can fully account for the range of GAD patients. One individual difference that may explain the heterogeneous nature of GAD is Effortful Control (EC). Vasey, Chriki, and Toh (2014; in preparation) have demonstrated that worry/GAD symptoms are less positively correlated with PH symptoms when EC is high than low. The present study sought to replicate the finding by Vasey et al. (2014). Secondly, we sought to demonstrate that the moderating influence of EC is mediated by several worry characteristics. These candidate mediators include the percentage of thoughts, percentage of images, extent of imagery, and efforts to transform images into thought. A sample of 960 individuals in the Psychology 1100 at The Ohio State University completed online questionnaires assessing worry, GAD symptoms, EC, PH symptoms, and worry characteristics. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted and interactions were probed using PROCESS, an SPSS tool (Hayes, 2013). The results successfully replicated the findings by Vasey et al. (2014). We also found that EC moderated the relationship between GAD symptoms and PH symptoms through several factors. As expected, those with high GAD symptoms who reported higher EC experienced lower PH symptoms by virtue of higher percentage of thoughts during worry. Contrary to expectation, for those with high GAD symptoms, EC was negatively, rather than positively, associated with efforts to transform images into thoughts. Furthermore, as expected, while worry/GAD symptoms were positively associated with the extent of imagery, EC had a countervailing main effect. EC acts as a moderator to reconcile the contradictory findings about PH symptoms in worriers/GAD patients as well as the incompatible models by Borkovec et al. (2004) and Newman and Llera (2011). Better characterizing GAD patients should help improve treatment efficacy. Thus, psychological interventions might benefit from identifying individuals with high and low EC.
Michael Vasey, PhD (Advisor)
Amelia Aldao, PhD (Committee Member)
Julian Thayer, PhD (Committee Member)
96 p.
Psychology
worry, Cognitive Avoidance model, Contrast Avoidance model, GAD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, effortful control, physiological hyperarousal

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Toh, G. Y. (2014). Why Does Effortful Control Moderate the Relationship between Worry and Subjective Reports of Physiological Hyperarousal? [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406042382

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Toh, Gim Y.. Why Does Effortful Control Moderate the Relationship between Worry and Subjective Reports of Physiological Hyperarousal? 2014. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406042382.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Toh, Gim Y.. "Why Does Effortful Control Moderate the Relationship between Worry and Subjective Reports of Physiological Hyperarousal?" Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406042382

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1406042382
359
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.