Cognitive Vulnerability To Emotional Disorders

Emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and dysfunctional patterns of eating are clearly among the most devastating and prevalent confronting practitioners, and they have received much attention from researchers--in personality, social, cognitive, and developmental psychology, as well as in clinical psychology and psychiatry. A major recent focus has been cognitive vulnerability, which seems to set the stage for recurrences of symptoms and episodes. In the last five years there has been a rapid proliferation of studies. In this book, leading experts present the first broad synthesis of what we have now learned about the nature, of cognitive factors that seem to play a crucial role in creating and maintaining vulnerability across the spectrum of emotional disorders. An introductory chapter considers theory and research design and methodology and constructs a general conceptual framework for understanding and studying the relationships between developmental and cognitive variables and later risk, and the difference between distal cognitive antecedents of disorders (e.g. depressive inferential styles, dysfunctional attitudes) and proximal ones (e.g. schema activation or inferences). Subsequent chapters are organized into three sections, on mood, anxiety, and eating disorders. Each section ends with an integrative overview chapter that offers both incisive commentary and insightful suggestions for further systematic research. A rich resource for all those professionally concerned with these problems, Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Disorders advances both clinical science and clinical practice.

The way we make sense of emotional situations has long been considered a foundation for the construction of our emotional experiences. Sometimes emotional meanings become distorted and so do our emotional experiences become disturbed. In the last decades, an embodied construction of emotional meanings has emerged. In this book, the embodied simulation framework is introduced for distorted emotional and motivational appraisals such as irrational beliefs, focusing on hyper-reactive emotional and motivational neural embodied simulations as core processes of cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. By embodying distorted emotional cognition we can extend the traditional views of the development of distorted emotional appraisals beyond learning from stress-sensitization process. Conclusions for the conceptualization of distorted emotional appraisals and treatment implications are discussed. Distorted emotional cognitions such as rigid thinking (I should succeed), awfulizing (It’s awful) and low frustration tolerance (I can’t stand it) are both vulnerabilities to emotional disorders and targets of psychotherapy. In this book, I argue that distorted emotional cognitions which act as proximal vulnerability to emotional disorders are embodied in hyper-reactive neural states involved in dysregulated emotions. Traditionally, excessive negative knowledge has been considered the basis of the cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. I suggest that the differences in the affective embodiments of distorted cognition confer its vulnerability status, rather than the differences in dysfunctional knowledge. I propose that negative knowledge and stress-induced brain changes conflate each other in building cognitive vulnerability to disturbed emotion. This model of distorted emotional cognition suggests new integration of learning and medication interventions in psychotherapy. This book is an important contribution to the literature given that a new model for the conceptualization of cognitive vulnerability is presented which extends the way we integrate biological, behavioral, and memory interventions in cognitive restructuring. This work is part of a larger project on embodied clinical cognition.

Recurrence of depressive episodes is not uncommon, even after successful treatment. What makes some people more vulnerable than others to this devastating disorder? Do depressive individuals have characteristic thinking and reasoning styles? By what means can cognitive antecedents to affective disorders be identified at different stages in the lifespan, and how can the risks they represent be mitigated? An important resource for anyone who seeks to understand or treat depression, this volume synthesizes the most current research and theory on cognitive vulnerability. Covering methodological, theoretical, and empirical issues, the authors review cognitive theories of depression; explicate and assess the vulnerability approach to psychopathology; and formulate an integrative view of the key proximal and distal antecedents of depression in adults.

Providing a cutting-edge examination of the mechanisms underlying depression, this volume integrates important areas of research that have largely remained separate. The authors explore both the cognitive and neurological processes that make some people more vulnerable than others to developing depression and experiencing recurrent episodes. They also probe how these processes interact—how negative life experiences, maladaptive belief systems, and patterns of thinking may actually affect neural circuitry, and vice versa. Explaining sophisticated theory and research in an accessible style, the book highlights the implications for improving clinical practices and patient outcomes.

The most comprehensive volume of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Mood Disorders provides detailed coverage of the characterization, understanding, and treatment of mood disorders. Chapters are written by the world's leading experts in their respective areas. The Handbook provides coverage of unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, and variants of these disorders. Current approaches to classifying the mood disorders are reviewed and contemporary controversies are placed in historical context. Chapter authors offer a variety of approaches to understanding the heterogeneity of the experiences of those who meet criteria for mood disorders, both within and across cultures. The role of genetic and environmental risk factors as well as premorbid personality and cognitive processes in the development of mood pathology are detailed. Interpersonal, neurobiological, and psychological factors also receive detailed consideration. The volume reviews mood disorders in special populations (e.g., postpartum and seasonal mood disorders) as well as common comorbidities (e.g., anxiety, substance use disorders). Somatic and psychosocial treatment approaches receive in-depth coverage with chapters that describe and review empirical evidence regarding each of the most influential treatment approaches. The depth and breadth offered by this Handbook make it an invaluable resource for clinicians and researchers, as well as scholars and students.

In this book, which advances clinical science and clinical practice, experts present the broad synthesis of what we have learnt about nature, origins, and clinical ramifications of the general and specific cognitive factors that seem to play a crucial role in creating and maintaining vulnerability across the spectrum of emotional disorders.