Perseverative thinking and self-differentiation among patients with generalized anxiety disorder and normal people

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders with high prevalence in community and clinical settings. The aim of this study was to compare perseverative thinking and self-differentiation in patients with generalized anxiety disorder and normal individuals. The research design was causal-comparative. The population included all patients and normal individuals going to Aramesh and Nedaye Shadi counseling centers at Urmia in three quarters in the year ۲۰۲۰, among whom, ۶۰ individuals were selected by the convenience sampling method. One group contained ۳۰ individuals with a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and a group consisted of ۳۰ normal individuals. The participants completed Ehring et al.'s perseverative thinking and Skowron and Friedlander’s self-differentiation questionnaires. Multivariate analysis of variance in SPSS-۲۳ was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the mean scores of perseverative thinking in patients with generalized anxiety disorder was significantly higher and the mean scores of self-differentiation was significantly lower than the normal individuals. The results indicated the importance of perseverative thinking and self-differentiation among patients with generalized anxiety disorder.

Keywords:

Generalized anxiety disorder Perseverative thinking Self , Differentiation