Anxiety and the dynamic self as defined by the prospection and mental simulation of looming future threats

A more dynamic perspective of threats to the self may contribute to an enhanced understanding of the processes that develop and maintain anxiety and thus, potentially inform psychological interventions. This article presents the looming vulnerability model of anxiety, which stresses the threat or risk prospection and dynamic mental simulation of the course of threat. Individuals do not become anxious simply because they picture distant or static possible threats that represent threats to the self. Rather, their anxiety results from interpreting potential threats as dynamic, growing, and approaching. Following a review of a wide range of literature from clinical, personality, and social psychology, we present the looming vulnerability model and its underpinnings in evolution and examine its applications to cognitive vulnerability to anxiety and its therapeutic alleviation [Correction added on 6 August 2019, after first online publication: Abstract text has been corrected to 'looming vulnerability model' in two places.]. We also address the associations of the model to other self-related concepts that are involved in anxiety.