Cognitive vulnerability in the context of cognitive psychology is a false belief, cognitive bias, or thought pattern that predisposes an individual to psychological problems. Vulnerability is present before symptoms of a psychological disorder begin to manifest. After an individual has experienced a stressful experience, cognitive vulnerability is a maladaptive response that increases the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder. In psychopathology, there are multiple perspectives through which the origins of cognitive vulnerability are viewed, a pathway that includes cognitive schema models, hopelessness models, and attachment theory. Attention bias is one mechanism that leads to the defective cognitive bias that leads to cognitive vulnerability. The perception of a level of threat depends on the urgency or intensity of the threshold. Anxiety is not a selective orientation. Initial or "distal" causes contribute to cognitive vulnerability, ultimately leading—through immediate or proximate causes—to the emergence of individual symptoms of the disorder. Current cognitive and emotional responses call up past assumptions and assumptions leading to compensatory and protective behavior that in turn reinforces false beliefs or other cognitive exposures. Communication with caregivers defines a specific attachment process. When secure attachment is disrupted and becomes insecure, maladaptive models are initiated, increasing the risk for depression. Working models construct sensory perceptions of relationships with others. Cognitive vulnerability occurs through maladaptive cognitive processes in the formation of relationships and attachments. Predisposition contributes to vulnerability. The term predisposition refers to the tendency to develop disorders. In the relationship between predisposition and stress, latent vulnerability is activated when an individual experiences events as stressful. In the psychological context, vulnerability refers to an increased tolerance for emotional distress and some types of psychopathology. Vulnerability can be a combination of genetic and learned experiences or an interaction between them. Vulnerability leads to coping with something unpleasant and manifests as symptoms of a variety of psychological disorders. Vulnerability predisposes individuals to a disorder, but it does not cause it. Predisposition to a particular psychological disorder is based on the subjective perception of an event by the individual. Selective mood-matching cues become entrenched over long periods. Emotional stimuli that are consistent with emotional concerns create an overall effect on symptoms associated with depression. Depression is related to selective orienting. Attention is blocked to emotional cues that do not fit the internal arrangement of a schema and that could harm the individual, ultimately leading to shared anxiety. When individuals at risk for depression are asked to recall specific events, they explain the overall order of events. Associative and reflective processing mechanisms come into play when cognitive vulnerability turns into depression. The dual-processing model is applicable in personality and social psychology but does not fit clinical phenomena. Negative self-evaluation bias provides the basis for cognitive vulnerability to depression. A spiral is created that creates forms of distress. This negative associative processing maintains a state of dysphoric mood. As the dysphoric mood escalates, the cognitive resources needed to combat the distress through reflective processing are depleted. Irrelevant tasks and intrusive thoughts come to mind when the upset mood and depleted cognitive resources further contribute to the escalation of the mood. The feedback loop in the dual processing model lies between self-referential cognition and the upset. The feedback loop results in an inability to apply reflective processing to correct negative biases.