The Perseverative Cognition Hypothesis: Testing the Effects of Worry and Rumination on Eating and Alcohol Consumption

在有关压力的文献中，最近一系列重要的研究表明，即使在没有物理压力源的情况下，仅认知表征就足以诱发生理压力反应，这种反应如果延长，就会增加与压力有关的疾病的可能性。这种认知倾向，创造了保护性认知假说，现在已经受到许多学术关注，导致最近的荟萃分析报告它对身体健康和福祉有重大影响。然而，尽管如此，很少有研究试图对抗坚持对健康结果的负面影响，迄今为止没有一项研究试图开发一种可能有助于这一过程的干预措施。此外，令人惊讶的是，迄今为止发表的那些研究，如果有的话，很少考虑到已确立的人格特征对行为改变模型的影响。因此，该项目旨在开展一系列新颖的研究，以揭示联系保护性认知和健康行为的理论基础，同时也考虑到可能调节行为改变的人格因素。最终，在压力与健康实验室之前的工作基础上，博士的目标是开发一种压力管理支持工具，以帮助减少日常的保护性认知，推迟认知担忧及其对负面健康结果（饮食过量/不足和饮酒）行为的相应影响。

Within the stress literature, an important string of recent studies have revealed that, even in instances where a physical stressor is absent, the cognitive representation alone can be enough to induce a physiological stress response, which, when prolonged, has been shown to increase the likelihood of stress-related diseases. This cognitive tendency, coined the preservative cognition hypothesis, has now been subject to much academic attention resulting in recent meta-analyses which report it as a significant influence on somatic health and wellbeing. However, despite this, few studies have attempted to combat the negative effects of perseveration on health outcomes and none thus far have attempted to develop an intervention that may aid this process. In addition, it appears surprising that those studies published to date, few, if any, consider the impact of well-established personality traits in behaviour change models. Therefore, the project aims to conduct a series of novel studies to unpick the theoretical underpinnings linking preservative cognition and health behaviours while also accounting for personality factors that may moderate behaviour change. Ultimately, built upon previous work within the Laboratory for Stress and Health, the PhD aims to develop a stress management support tool to help reduce daily preservative cognition and postpone cognitive worry and their corresponding effects on behaviours that have been liked to negative health outcomes (over/under eating & alcohol consumption).