TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-reported automaticity and irrationality in spider phobia
AU - Maijer, B N.
AU - Merckelbach, H.L.G.J.
AU - Muris, P.E.H.M.
PY - 2000/1/1
Y1 - 2000/1/1
N2 - Spider phobic women (n = 39) and nonfearful controls (n = 41) completed a 20-item questionnaire measuring the extent to which they experience their fear reactions to spiders as automatic and irrational. For the phobic sample, therapy outcome data were also collected. Results suggest that spider phobics tend to view their attitude to spiders as irrational and in this respect, they do not differ from control subjects. Furthermore, compared to control subjects, phobics more often perceive their responses to spiders as automatic, i.e., not under intentional control. Contrary to expectation, no robust correlation was found between automaticity and irrationality. Interestingly, automaticity was not related to treatment outcome, while irrationality to some extent predicted therapy outcome (i.e., the more phobics experienced their fear as irrational, the more they profited from exposure treatment).
AB - Spider phobic women (n = 39) and nonfearful controls (n = 41) completed a 20-item questionnaire measuring the extent to which they experience their fear reactions to spiders as automatic and irrational. For the phobic sample, therapy outcome data were also collected. Results suggest that spider phobics tend to view their attitude to spiders as irrational and in this respect, they do not differ from control subjects. Furthermore, compared to control subjects, phobics more often perceive their responses to spiders as automatic, i.e., not under intentional control. Contrary to expectation, no robust correlation was found between automaticity and irrationality. Interestingly, automaticity was not related to treatment outcome, while irrationality to some extent predicted therapy outcome (i.e., the more phobics experienced their fear as irrational, the more they profited from exposure treatment).
U2 - 10.2466/pr0.2000.87.2.395
DO - 10.2466/pr0.2000.87.2.395
M3 - Article
C2 - 11086583
SN - 0033-2941
VL - 87
SP - 395
EP - 405
JO - Psychological Reports
JF - Psychological Reports
ER -