CONTENT-ANALYSIS OF WORRISOME STREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN ANXIOUS ANDDYSPHORIC PARTICIPANTS

Examination of the streams-of-consciousness content of generalized anx iety disorder dysphoric, and control participants during neutral and w orry periods revealed that worrying in general was associated with (a) being less present focused; (b) experiencing elevated levels of negat ively valenced, high arousal affect; (c) referencing the immediate env ironment to a lesser degree; (d) more frequent occurrence of words ref lecting cognitive distortions; and (e) shifting from one topic to anot her topic to a lesser extent. Significant group differences in the use of specific theoretically relevant words and statements were found. C ompared to dysphoric and control participants, anxious participants us ed a higher relative frequency of somatic anxiety words, statements im plying catastrophic interpretations of events, and statements implying a rigid, rule-bound manner of interpreting events. Additionally, the results revealed that dysphoric participants made use of derivatives o f the word worry at an exceptionally high frequency.