Looming Vulnerability

John Riskind is a Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, and a former Director of research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania at the Center for Cognitive Therapy with Aaron Beck. He is the author of numerous articles on cognitive styles and mechanisms in anxiety, has co-edited a book with Lauren Alloy and others on Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders with Lauren Alloy (Lawrence Erlbaum). He has also coauthored a textbook with Alloy, Abnormal Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives (McGraw Hill). He is the founding editor of the International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, a former editor of the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, and associate editor of Cognitive Therapy and Research. Neil A. Rector is a Full Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychological Clinical Scienceat the University of Toronto and a Senior Research Scientist and the Director of Research at the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. His current research and clinical interests focus on the study of cognitive and behavioural mechanisms of vulnerability in the development and persistence of anxiety, mood, and OCD disorders and their treatment with cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). His research has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation and resulted in more than 120 scientific publications and 7 published books. In addition to having an active CBT practice, Dr. Rector trains and supervises psychology and psychiatry residents, runs workshops nationally and internationally, and is the past Co-Director of the University of Toronto’s Continuing Medical Education Intermediate and Advanced CBT courses.

Introduction.- Evolutionary and Ecological Functions of Dynamic: Perceptions of Looming Danger.- Dynamic Information is Integral to Perception, Cognition and Emotion.-  Basic Postulates of the Looming Vulnerability Model.- Dynamic Gains in Growing Threat and Threat Appraisal.- Effects of Moving and Looming Stimuli on Attention, Memory, and Fear Conditioning.- Experimental Studies Confirming the Emotional Impact of Dynamic Movement and Looming Manipulations.- Introduction to Looming Cognitive Style: Construct and Measurement.- Developmental Antecedents of the LCS, the LCS as an Overarching Theme of Anxiety, and Cognitive Vulnerability-Stress Interaction.- Looming Cognitive Style Contributes to Etiological Processes in Anxiety Disorders.- Looming Vulnerability in Generalized Anxiety Disorder.- Looming Vulnerability in Panic Disorder and the Phobias.- Looming Vulnerability in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.- ExploringPotential Links between Looming Vulnerability and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.- CBT for Reducing Looming Vulnerability Distortions: Translational Concepts and Clinical Applications.- New Directions in Research: Anxiety and Beyond.- Final Synthesis and Conclusions.