Meta-cognitive profiles in anxiety disorders
Section snippets
Meta-cognitive profiles in anxiety disorders
Meta-cognition is a multi-faceted concept comprising knowledge, processes and strategies that appraise, monitor or control cognition. In the area of adult psychopathology, the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model proposed by Wells and Mathews (Wells, 2000; Wells and Matthews, 1994, Wells and Matthews, 1996) offers a detailed analysis of how meta-cognitions would play a determining role in the maintenance and development of psychological disorders. Meta-cognitions have been
Meta-cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ, Cartwright-Hatton and Wells, 1997)
The MCQ is a questionnaire with 65 items that have to be answered using a scale of 1 (“I do not agree”) to 4 (“I totally agree”). Factorial analysis carried out by the authors showed the presence of five empirically differentiated and relatively stable factors (Cartwright-Hatton and Wells, 1997). Four of them represent meta-cognitive content: positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts and their danger, loss of cognitive confidence, and superstition
3.1 Correlational analyses
Pearson inter-correlations between the main scales are displayed in Table 1. As can be seen, meta-cognitive beliefs are significantly correlated with anxious thoughts and thought-control strategies.
Hypothesis testing
Multivariate analyses were run to test for the hypothesized group differences in the various dimensions of meta-cognition, anxious thoughts and thought control. There was a significant effect of diagnostic group on the combined dependent variable (F(45, 672) = 15.72, P < 0.0005; Pillai's trace = 1.54;
Discussion
This study aimed to investigate relationships between meta-cognitive beliefs, anxious thoughts, and thought-control strategies in generalized anxiety, depression and obsessive–compulsive disorders. The differences between the diagnostic groups in terms of the factors underlying these variables were also explored, and based on the observed significant differences, an attempt was made to arrive at the major dimensions along which these groups can be described.
Meta-cognitive beliefs, anxious
Acknowledgement
The research reported was supported by a research grant from the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili.
References (16)
- et al.
Beliefs about worry and intrusions: the metacognitions questionnaire and its correlates
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
(1997) - et al.
A comparison of metacognitions in patients with hallucinations, delusions, panic disorder, and non-patient controls
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2003) - et al.
Thought suppression in obsessive–compulsive disorder
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2002) - et al.
Further tests of a cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder: metacognitions and worry in GAD, panic disorder, social phobia, depression, and nonpatients
Behavior Therapy
(2001) - et al.
The thought control questionnaire: a measure of individual differences in the control of unwanted thoughts
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(1994) - et al.
Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: the S-REF model
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(1996) - et al.
Relationships between worry, obsessive compulsive symptoms and metacognitive beliefs
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(1998) - et al.
A preliminary study of worry and metacognitions in hypochondriasis
Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
(1999)
Cited by (32)
Developing and validating a scale for anxiety over land and forest fire
2023, International Journal of Disaster Risk ReductionThe efficacy of group metacognitive therapy for children (MCT-c) with generalized anxiety disorder: An open trial
2018, Journal of Anxiety DisordersDysfunctional metacognition across psychopathologies: A meta-analytic review
2017, European PsychiatryThe impact of attentional and emotional demands on memory performance in obsessive-compulsive disorder
2017, Journal of Anxiety DisordersAn exploration of metacognitive beliefs and thought control strategies in bipolar disorder
2017, Comprehensive PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :The S-REF model has received increasing empirical support in unipolar depressive disorder with research showing that unhelpful metacognitive beliefs are linked to both state and trait depression [9,10]. Depressed individuals report significantly higher levels of such beliefs than both control participants [11,12] and previously depressed individuals [11,13]. Patients with unipolar depression and bipolar disorder in a depressed episode have been found to report higher levels of unhelpful metacognitive beliefs than controls, specifically believing thoughts are uncontrollable/dangerous, that one needs to control thoughts, being more cognitive self-conscious, and having less confidence in cognitions [7].
Association of metacognitive beliefs, obsessive beliefs and symptom severity with quality of life in obsessive-compulsive patients
2014, Archives of Psychiatric NursingCitation Excerpt :Instead, the metacognition, cognitive self-consciousness seems to play a role in the QoL of OCD patients. Cognitive self-consciousness has been found to characterize OCD patients (Barahmand, 2009; Exner et al., 2009) setting them apart from individuals with other psychiatric conditions. This might imply that cognitive self-consciousness is not necessarily related to OCD severity and is more or less a trait-like characteristic in individuals with OCD, making them vulnerable to impaired QoL.