The Comparison of Emotion Regulation Strategies, Worry, Meta Mood and Cognitive Failures in Individual with and without Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare emotion regulation strategies, worry, meta mood and cognitive failures in patients with GAD and healthy individuals. The curent study was a causal-comparative research. The statistical population included all male and female patients with GAD that were referred to psychiatric centers in the city of Ardabil. The study sample consisted of 47 patients with generalized anxiety disorder based on psychiatrist's diagnosis and 47 normal individuals based on clinical interview who were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected, using the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire-version short, Penn state worries questionnaire, treat meta mood scale and cognitive failure’s questionnaire. To analyze the data, MANOVA was used in SPSS software. The results showed that the average scores of the negative emotion regulation strategies, worry and cognitive failures in patients with GAD were significantly more than the normal individuals. The average scores of the positive emotion regulation strategies and meta mood in patients with GAD were significantly lower than the healthy individuals. These findings suggest that emotion regulation strategies, worry, meta mood and cognitive failures can be applicable in the pathology and prevention of generalized anxiety disorder.

Keywords

• generalized anxiety disorder
• emotion regulation strategies
• meta mood
• worry
• cognitive failures