Cognitive vulnerability

A cognitive vulnerability in cognitive psychology is an erroneous belief, cognitive bias, or pattern of thought that predisposes an individual to psychological problems. The vulnerability exists before the symptoms of a psychological disorder appear. After the individual encounters a stressful experience, the cognitive vulnerability shapes a maladaptive response that increases the likelihood of a psychological disorder. A cognitive vulnerability in cognitive psychology is an erroneous belief, cognitive bias, or pattern of thought that predisposes an individual to psychological problems. The vulnerability exists before the symptoms of a psychological disorder appear. After the individual encounters a stressful experience, the cognitive vulnerability shapes a maladaptive response that increases the likelihood of a psychological disorder. In psychopathology, there are several perspectives from which the origins of cognitive vulnerabilities can be examined,It is the path way of including cognitive schema models, hopelessness models, and attachment theory. Attentional bias is one mechanism leading to faulty cognitive bias that leads to cognitive vulnerability. Allocating a danger level to a threat depends on the urgency or intensity of the threshold. Anxiety is not associated with selective orientation. Preliminary or 'distal' causes contribute to the formation of a cognitive vulnerability that ultimately, via immediate or proximal causes, leads to the individual manifesting symptoms of the disorder. Immediate cognitive and emotional responses trigger imagery and assumptions formed in the past leading to offsetting, defensive behavior and in turn reinforcing mistaken beliefs or other cognitive vulnerabilities. The contact made with caretakers determines a certain attachment process. When secure attachment is disrupted and starts to become insecure, abnormal patterns begin, increasing risk for depression. Working models build perceptions of relationships with others. Cognitive vulnerability is created with maladaptive cognitive processing when building relationships and attachments. Diathesis contributes to vulnerability. The diathesis refers to the inclination to illness. In the diathesis-stress relationship, hidden vulnerability is activated through events that the individual perceives as stressful. Vulnerability in psychological terms is implied as an increased probability of emotional pain and some type of psychopathology. Vulnerability can be a combination and interaction of genetic or acquired experiences. Vulnerability leads to putting up with something unpleasant and represents symptoms of various psychological disorders. Vulnerability predisposes individuals to a disorder, but does not initiate the disorder. Depending on the individual's subjective perception of an event, the diathesis leads to a certain psychological illness. Through several cognitive biases, selective mood-congruent cues become established over long intervals. Emotional stimuli matching the emotional concerns create an aggregate effect on symptoms related to depression. Depression is associated with selective orientation. It prevents attention toward emotional cues that do not fit the internalized scheme to which the individual has become vulnerable, and leads to comorbid anxiety. When individuals who are prone to depression are asked to recall a specific event, they explain the general class of events (e.g., 'The time when I was living with my parents'). Associative and reflective processing mechanisms apply when cognitive vulnerability is processed into depression. The dual process model is valid in social and personality psychology but is not adapted to clinical phenomena. Negative bias in self-assessment provides a foundation for a cognitive vulnerability to depression. Then a downward spiral forms to create forms of dysphoria. Negatively biased associative processing will maintain a dysphoric mood state. As the dysphoric mood escalates, cognitive resources necessary to combating dysphoria by reflective processing are depleted. Irrelevant tasks and intrusive thoughts come to mind when in a dysphoric mood, and cognitive resource depletion further contributes to mood escalation. The feedback loop in the dual process model is between self referent cognition and dysphoria. The feedback loop establishes an inability to apply reflective processing to correct negative biases. Postponing the reflective processes leads to mood persistence. The individual becomes accustomed to a state of dysphoria as they experience more and more negative mood states. Dysphoric moods create more associative processing for depressive vulnerable people by negative cognitive biases. When associative bias gets stronger, the bias becomes difficult to override. Ineffective reflective strategies lead to persistence of dysphoric moods.