Psychometric properties of the intolerance of uncertainty : believability scale
The cognitive theory of the development of anxiety disorders proposes that people’s dysfunctional core beliefs and assumptions affect how they interpret situations. They may often see situations as more dangerous than they really are, and in turn experience symptoms of anxiety. In cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) the aim is to reduce symptoms by changing cognition. One hypothesis about how this cognitive change occurs proposes that by reducing believability of negative unhelpful beliefs and increase in believability of alternative helpful beliefs leads to symptom reduction. The development of measurements for these specific constructs is needed to better understand the drive of change in psychopathology. In this thesis, results are reported from a validation study of the Intolerance of uncertainty - Believability Scale (IUS-B) in samples of GAD patients and university students. The IUS-B is a questionnaire that measures negative attitudes to uncertainty. The respondent is asked to rate how much he believed each statement about uncertainty the last time he felt anxious on a scale from 0% to 100%. Results showed that the IUS-B has excellent internal consistency, and satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. The participants diagnosed with GAD were too few for reliable results. Therefore, it was decided to merge a part of the GAD patients with a part of participants from the non-clinical sample in to a sample characterized by high worriers. Receiver-Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed the IUS-B to be effective in identifying high worriers and may possible be a convenient measure of change in cognition through therapy. Keywords: Intolerance of uncertainty scale, believability Scale, generalized anxiety disorder, psychometric properties
Klínisk sálfræði, Meistaraprófsritgerðir, Kvíði, Hugræn atferlismeðferð, Clinical psychology, Anxiety
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations