Cognitive processes in the attitude-behavior relation

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究将我们对态度形成、改变和施加影响的基本机制以及态度评估程序的理解所积累的进展与有关情绪障碍的研究联系起来。一个模型的态度，并通过它们引导行为的过程中，研究的基础，旨在解决各种问题的病因，评估和/或治疗情绪障碍。该模型的重点是在记忆中的关联的强度之间的态度对象和一个人的评价的对象，这决定了态度的可访问性，并最终，其权力。合理的态度通常有助于有效的日常运作，因为它允许人们轻松地评价物体，而不需要任何有意识的思考。然而，无效的消极态度（如许多焦虑症，恐惧症和抑郁症）会抑制接近实际有益的物体或情况的意愿。提出了四个项目，每个项目涉及一系列的实验。每一个继续在过去追求的工作线，专注于临床研究和实践的概念进步和发现的转化价值。项目I旨在促进对态度的内隐测量的理解，并将其作为评估社交焦虑障碍、治疗效果和复发风险的工具。项目II的重点是内隐评价性条件反射，最终，它的有效性作为一个程序，产生自动激活的恐惧和它的价值作为一个辅助暴露疗法的变化。项目III关注态度和接近-回避行为之间的动态相互作用，及其对无效消极态度的发展和维持的后果，以及克服它们的机制。项目四关注消极偏见--消极倾向于压倒积极--在态度的学习和概括中。该研究探讨了这些偏见是否作为脆弱性因素，使个人处于焦虑和/或抑郁的发展风险之中。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research links the advances that have accumulated in our understanding of the basic mechanisms by which attitudes form, change, and exert their influence, as well as the procedures by which attitudes can be assessed, to research concerning emotional disorders. A model of attitudes, and the processes by which they guide behavior, underlies research aimed at addressing various issues central to the etiology, assessment, and/or treatment of emotional disorders. The model focuses on the strength of the association in memory between the attitude object and one's evaluation of the object, which determines the accessibility of the attitude and, ultimately, its power. Accessible attitudes generally contribute to effective daily functioning by permitting people to appraise objects easily, without any need for conscious deliberation. However, invalid negative attitudes (as in many anxiety disorders, phobias, and depression) can inhibit the willingness to approach objects or situations that actually are beneficial. Four projects, each involving a series of experiments, are proposed. Each continues a line of work pursued in the past, focusing on the translational value of the conceptual advances and findings for clinical research and practice. Project I seeks to advance understanding of implicit measures of attitude, and examines their utility as tools for the assessment of social anxiety disorder, treatment effectiveness, and risk for relapse. Project II focuses on implicit evaluative conditioning and, ultimately, its efficacy as a procedure for producing change in automatically-activated fears and its value as an adjunct to exposure therapy. Project III concerns the dynamic interplay between attitudes and approach-avoidance behavior, and its consequences for the development and maintenance of invalid negative attitudes, as well as mechanisms by which they might be overcome. Project IV concerns negativity biases-tendencies for the negative to predominate over the positive-in both the learning and generalization of attitudes. The research examines whether these biases function as vulnerability factors that place individuals at risk for the development of anxiety and/or depression.