ABSTRACT

Metacognitive therapy is grounded in an information processing model of the factors involved in the etiology and maintenance of psychological disorder. The model, called the SelfRegulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model, was originally proposed by Wells and Matthews (1994) and has been subsequently elaborated (Wells, 2000, 2009). As the name of the model implies, it accounts for psychological disorders in terms of predominantly top-down or conscious processes and selfregulatory strategies. According to the model, the person's style of thinking or coping with thoughts, emotions and stress back®re, and lead to an intensi®cation and maintenance of emotional distress. The model draws on distinctions in cognitive psychology between levels of control of attention. It proposes that psychological disturbance is principally linked to biases in the selection and execution of controlled processes for appraising and coping with thoughts, threats and emotions. An individual's strategy for thinking and self-regulation in response to threat and challenges can prolong emotional suffering or lead to more transient emotional reactions. Psychological disorder develops when the person's style of thinking and coping inadvertently leads to persistence and strengthening of emotional responses. This occurs principally as a result of extended thinking which prolongs emotion. A certain pattern of thinking, called the cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS), is identi®ed as a causal factor in extending negative thinking in psychological disorder.