Adaptive Information Processing Model Flashcards

How does the AIP model account for why two people can experience the same traumatic event but develop very different outcomes?

Answer: Individual differences in the capacity and state of the information processing system at the time

The AIP model attributes differential outcomes to individual variation in the information processing system's capacity, prior experiences, and state at the time of the event.

In the AIP model, what does the term 'blocking belief' refer to in the context of EMDR processing?

Answer: A dysfunctional cognition that prevents the processing system from moving toward resolution

Blocking beliefs are dysfunctional cognitions—often about safety, responsibility, or worthiness—that impede the natural flow of EMDR reprocessing and may require a cognitive interweave to address.

According to the AIP model, somatic symptoms such as unexplained physical pain may be explained as:

Answer: Body-stored components of unprocessed traumatic memory networks

The AIP model recognizes that body sensations can be stored as part of unprocessed traumatic memories, manifesting as somatic symptoms when those networks are activated.

Why does the AIP model suggest that therapist-provided reassurance alone is insufficient for lasting symptom relief in trauma?

Answer: Reassurance addresses conscious cognitions but not the dysfunctionally stored memory network

Because symptoms arise from dysfunctionally stored memory networks rather than simply from faulty conscious beliefs, reassurance targeting conscious thought does not reach or reprocess the underlying memory.

In AIP theory, what is the relationship between unprocessed memories and self-concept?

Answer: Negative self-concept develops from networks of unprocessed adverse experiences

The AIP model holds that a negative self-concept is constructed from accumulated networks of unprocessed adverse memories, each contributing its dysfunctionally encoded self-referential beliefs.

The AIP model predicts that successfully processing a traumatic memory will MOST likely also affect which of the following?

Answer: Related memories linked in the same associative network

Because associative networks link related memories, processing one node can spread adaptive information to connected memories, often producing generalized improvement across related experiences.

Which metaphor is most consistent with the AIP model's description of what EMDR does to frozen traumatic memories?

Answer: Thawing and metabolizing a memory that has been stuck in ice

The AIP model uses language consistent with thawing or unfreezing—allowing the previously blocked processing system to resume moving the memory toward natural adaptive resolution.