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The Contributing Role of Negative Affectivity and Experiential Avoidance to Increased Cardiovascular Risk
Author(s) -
Hildebrandt Mikaela J.,
Hayes Steven C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social and personality psychology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 1751-9004
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00448.x
Subject(s) - experiential avoidance , negative affectivity , psychology , experiential learning , anxiety , feeling , binge eating , psychosocial , disease , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychotherapist , psychiatry , medicine , eating disorders , mathematics education , economics , macroeconomics
Depression and anxiety are independent risk factors for the onset of cardiovascular disease, independent of classical risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, or hypertension. The present paper argues that the tendency to avoid difficult thoughts and feelings helps explain this relationship. There is a strong positive relationship between experiential avoidance and negative affectivity. Experiential avoidance is also related to several health behaviors recognized for increasing cardiovascular risk and may help functionally explain why individuals engage in problematic behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, and binge eating. Treatments that undermine experiential avoidance could be useful psychosocial approaches to cardiovascular risk reduction.