The Use of “As Many As Can” Versus “Feel Like Continuing” Stop Rules During Worrying

Abstract

Two studies are reported that investigated the processes involved in stopping worry. Study 1 found that the use of “as many as can” stop rules was significantly related to measures of trait worry and beliefs about the positive and negative consequences of worrying, and Study 2 demonstrated that the reported use of “as many as can” stop rules significantly predicted perseveration on behavioral measures of catastrophic worrying. Reported use of “feel like continuing” stop rules was unrelated to any mea- sures of worry in both studies. These results indicate that the use of “as many as can” stop rules is a highly significant predictor of worry frequency and perseveration, and that beliefs about the positive and negative consequences of worry also independently predict the use of “as many as can” stop rules. These findings are consistent with (1) the view that the stop rules used by worriers are closely associated with, or directly derived from, the more stable, global beliefs that worriers hold about the utility of the worry process, and (2) predictions from themood-as-input model of catastrophic worrying (H. M. Startup & G. C. L. Davey, 2001)