Abstract

A series of study were carried out to identify cognitive bias and Catastrophizing tendency of worriers in threatening situations. Studies 1 and 2 attempted to explore cognitive bias of worriers to their own worrying themes or various threatening situations presented by experimenters in seven cognitive dimensions about threat(i.e., possibility of threat, negativity of threat, coping ability to threat, duty of threat control, effort to control threat, perceived controllability to threat, belief about utility of worrying). Results show that worriers overestimate the possibility of threat, negativity of threat, duty of threat control, effort to control threat, and belief about utility of worrying, whereas they underestimate their coping ability to threat and perceived controllability to threat. In Study 3 which tested their catastrophizing tendency, worriers rated superficial and catastrophic worries more accessible, probable and threatening than did nonwortiers. Worriers also showed lower ability to produce alternative thoughts to worries than did nonwortiers. These findings were discussed in terms of theoretical and psychotherapeutic implications.