Phobia-relevant illusory correlations: the role of phobic responsivity.
The authors investigated the role of phobic responsivity in the generation of phobia-relevant illusory correlations. As a means of disentangling the contributions of prior fear and elicited fear responses, half of a group of phobic women received 1 mg alprazolam (n = 21), and half received a placebo (n = 22). A group of nonfearful women (n = 24) was included to control for prior fear per se. Participants were exposed to slides of spiders, weapons, and flowers that were randomly paired with a shock, a siren, or nothing. Postexperimental covariation estimates and on-line outcome expectancies were assessed. Irrespective of both prior and elicited fear, participants postexperimentally overassociated spiders and shock. Yet, only women with spider phobia displayed a persisting fear-confirming expectancy bias. This bias was similar for the placebo and alprazolam groups. Thus, the bias appeared to be due to preexisting phobogenic beliefs, whereas phobic responsivity played a negligible role.
de Jong
P J
PJ
Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Maastrict University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. P.deJong@DEP.unimaas.nl
Merckelbach
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000525:Alprazolam / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D013112:Spiders
D000525:Alprazolam