Beyond fear and disgust: the role of (automatic) contamination-related associations in spider phobia.
This study explored the role of threat and contamination-related associations in spider phobia. Treatment-seeking (n=60) and non-phobic (n=30) individuals completed threat and disgust-related Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after one session of 2.5h in vivo exposure. To differentiate actual treatment effects from test-retest effects on the IAT, half of the phobic individuals completed the IAT twice before treatment. Results showed that: (1) threat and contamination associations similarly distinguished between phobic and non-phobic participants on self-reports and IATs; (2) only self-reported threat associations incrementally predicted participants' overt avoidance behavior next to self-reported global affective associations; (3) self-reported associations were significantly reduced following treatment; (4) IAT-effects showed no significant reduction following treatment, and no evidence was found for an additional treatment-induced change over and above test-retest effects.
Huijding
Jorg
J
Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Woudestein, T13-30, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Huijding@fsw.eur.nl <Huijding@fsw.eur.nl>
de Jong
Peter J
PJ
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001332:Automatism / Q000523:psychology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D012718:Set, Psychology; D013112:Spiders; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires