KHAS Psychology Department Colloquium Series – Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Altan Atalay

KHAS Psychology Department Colloquium Series host Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Altan Atalay (Koç University) on Friday, November 25 between 10:30-12:00 at B-409 for her speech titled “Looming Cognitive Style: Studies on an Anxiety Specific Cognitive Vulnerability Factor.”

Abstract: The “looming vulnerability” model of anxiety proposes that individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to anxiety possess the “looming cognitive style” (LCS), which is a trait like negative cognitive style. Such “looming vulnerable” individuals tend to run simulation models through their mind’s “eye” in which they perceive and mentally calculate a spectrum of mentally simulated threats -social rejection, accidents, heart attacks, disease contamination- that are rapidly growing, approaching, and rising in urgency, even when they aren’t really exposed to a threatening situation. Research from the past two decades consistently indicated LCS to have significant specific associations with anxiety disorder, in addition to less robust correlations with depression. This seminar will cover a series of studies on the role of LCS in anxiety through focusing on its associations and interactions with various transdiagnostic risk factors and protective factors.