Cognitive processes in the attitude-behavior relation

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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.