Abstract

This study investigated the influence of beliefs about uncertainty on interpretive biases and access to threat schemata. Individuals from the community and undergraduate students (N = 74) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: positive beliefs about uncertainty (N =37) and negative beliefs about uncertainty ( N =37). To manipulate beliefs about uncertainty, participants watched a presentation on problem solving that contained information about either positive or negative effects of uncertainty on problem solving. To assess interpretive biases, participants completed a modified version of the Ambiguous/Unambiguous Situations Diary. Participants read potentially threatening passages and rated their level of worry. Passages were then disambiguated either positively or negatively and participants rated the likelihood and the value of these events. To assess access to threat schemata, the Catastrophizing Interview was administered, which is a structured worry task that assesses various aspects of the worry process, using the downward arrow technique. The results indicated that, relative to the positive beliefs about uncertainty group, participants in the negative beliefs about uncertainty group rated the positively disambiguated scenarios as less positive and the average likelihood of feared consequences to personal worries as more probable. This study provides support for the notion that beliefs about uncertainty may have an effect on interpretations of ambiguous situations as well as ease of access to threat schemata.