Blood-injection-injury fears: harm- vs. disgust-relevant selective outcome associations.
There is increasing evidence that blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia is qualitatively different from the other specific phobias in the sense that phobic distress takes the form of disgust rather than (threat-induced) fear. Following this, we tested the relative importance of harm and disgust-related associative biases in BII-fear. High (n=25) and low (n=27) fearful individuals saw a series of fear-relevant (blood-related) and fear-irrelevant (rabbit and flower) slides which were randomly paired with either a harm-related outcome, a disgust-related outcome, or nothing. Preexperimentally, participants expected blood-related slides to be followed by both disgust- and harm-relevant outcomes. These selective preexperimental outcome expectancies were readily corrected during the experiment. Neither low nor high fearful participants showed a postexperimental covariation bias. The absence of differential effects between high and low fearful participants does not support the idea that disgust- or harm-relevant associative biases play a role in the maintenance of BII-fears. The results corroborate the previous finding of Pury and Mineka [1997. Covariation bias for blood-injury stimuli and aversive outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 35-47] that people are generally liable to selectively associate BII-stimuli with aversive outcomes.
de Jong
Peter J
PJ
Department of Developmental and Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 1/2, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands. p.j.de.jong@rug.nl
Peters
Madelon L
ML
D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D001290:Attitude; D015982:Bias; D001769:Blood; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000523:psychology; D007267:Injections / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology