Déjà vu all over again: critical misunderstandings concerning anxiety sensitivity and constructive suggestions for future research.
The debate concerning the relation between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and trait anxiety has been constructive for the field and has suggested a number of important directions for future research. Reiss' (1997) commentary on AS and trait anxiety in this journal, however, contains several serious factual mis-statements and logical errors that confuse, rather than clarify, many of the central issues in this debate. These misunderstandings are corrected and the implications of the issues raised by Reiss are addressed here. The authors suggest that future research on AS (a) embed this construct within the context of broader temperamental and personality variables and (b) explicitly recognize the biodirectionality of emotional and cognitive influences.
Lilienfeld
S O
SO
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Turner
S M
SM
Jacob
R G
RG
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D013694:Temperament; D009626:Terminology as Topic