A Search for Specificity: Attentional Bias in Anxiety, Depression, and Borderline Personality Disorder

Distractions by emotional stimuli have been studied to identify attentional biases that may provide information relevant to assessing and treating emotional disorders. These studies of attentional bias have frequently employed the emotional Stroop and dot probe tasks. However, results from studies that have used these tasks have been varied and it remains unclear if disorder-specific biases exist. A dimensional study, utilizing measures of broad psychopathology constructs and more specific subcomponents, was conducted to investigate these inconsistencies. Results suggest that while the relationship of attentional bias to the broad constructs of anxiety, depression, and BPD is unclear, research that focuses on more specific aspects of these psychopathologies may provide clearer answers as to the specificity of attentional bias.