Psychophysiology of fear imagery: Differences between focal phobia and social performance anxiety.

Studied 11 spider phobics and 16 speech anxious undergraduates who imaged fear scenes with spider and public-speaking content and a series of standard scenes that were constructed to vary in degree of emotional arousal and movement. Phobic levels were determined by the Fear Survey Schedule, the Speech Anxiety Questionnaire, and the Spider Fear Questionnaire. Both S groups did not differ on Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale scores. Heart rate, skin conductance, and ocular activity were recorded. Spider phobics rated all imagery contents as more vivid and reported more scene movement than speech anxious Ss. Both groups responded to their own fear scenes with higher ratings of emotion and a greater physiological response than to the other group's fear scenes. The arousal response of spider phobics to relevant fear scenes was greater than that of speech anxious Ss. The data suggest that the outcome of imagery-based therapies may be partly determined by type of fear. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychophysiological analysis of fear modification using an automated desensitization procedure.

In Exp. I with 29 female undergraduates, an apparatus designed to administer systematic desensitization automatically was as effective as a live therapist in reducing phobic behavior, suggesting that effective desensitization is not dependent on a concurrent interpersonal interaction. An extensive psychophysiological analysis of the desensitization process showed that Ss' fear signals are associated with an increment in autonomic arousal, and that repreated presentation of fear items is accompanied by reduction in autonomic activity. Heart rate levels, responses, and degree of habituation to fear stimuli appeared related to success of desensitization. In Exp. II with 5 male and 15 female Ss, the anxiety hierarchies developed for desensitization yielded autonomic gradients, when the items were presented as visualized scenes, that varied with fear content and reported clarity of visualization. Results support the view that desensitization modifies autonomic, as well as gross motor and verbal responses, through learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incidental learning, noun imagery-concreteness and direction of associations in paired-associate learning.

Examined the effect of imagery-concreteness pairs in incidental learning. In Exp. I with 96 undergraduates, intentional learning was superior to incidental learning. Recall of concrete-concrete noun pairs was significantly better than recall of all other pairs, while concrete-abstract and abstract-concrete nouns did not differ from each other but did differ from abstract-abstract recall. In Exp. II with 64 Ss, instructions to use imagery during the orientation task resulted in similar performance for incidental and intentional learning Ss. Concreteness yielded a greater effect on the stimulus side than on the response side of pairs, particularly for stimulus-response recall. Associative directionality had no reliable effects in either experiment. Results are discussed in terms of A. Paivio's conceptual peg hypothesis and 2-process theory of verbal and imaginal memory. (French summary) (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex guilt, repression, sexual "arousability," and sexual experience on female sexual arousal during erotica and fantasy.

Hypothesized that, among women who were asked to fantasize about sex, erotic preexposure would facilitate arousal during the fantasy, and arousal would be greater among those who had less sex guilt, those who were more arousable, those who were more experienced, and sensitizers. 62 female Ss (aged 18–53 yrs) were randomly assigned to view either an erotic or a nonerotic videotape. All Ss then imagined and wrote out a sexual fantasy. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-report ratings and physiologically by continuous vaginal photoplethysmograph recording. Ss high in sex guilt reported less arousal but showed significantly greater physiological arousal during the erotic videotape than did Ss low in sex guilt. For the high sex-guilt Ss, the erotic videotape facilitated physiological arousal during fantasy. Ss low in sexual arousability and low in sexual experience followed a similar pattern. No significant differences were found for repression-sensitization. Results point toward a pattern of behavioral inhibition that facilitates increased response to forbidden erotica. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences and self-report of fear: A psychophysiological assessment.

Hypothesized that, because of differential social learning, females would report fear of spiders more frequently than males would but that males selected for equal self-report of fear would show greater autonomic responsivity than females to slides of spiders. Four groups of 10 undergraduates each (male and female fearful and nonfearful) were assembled. They were told to wait quietly for 10 min, after which they would see slides of tarantulas. Skin conductance level was measured during the anticipatory period and in response to each of the slides. Results confirm the hypothesis that more women would report fear than men but failed to confirm the hypothesis that there would be differential autonomic responding. Fearful Ss, irrespective of sex, showed prolonged autonomic arousal during the entire anticipatory period, whereas nonfearful Ss showed increasing autonomic arousal as the time for the 1st slide presentation approached. This finding is discussed in terms of coping theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood changes, physiological responses, and self-statements during social rejection imagery.

Exp I, partially replicating M. Goldfried and D. Sobocinski's (see record 1975-26824-001) methodology, evaluated the cognitive behavioral assumption that one's images and correct verbalizations mediate emotional and physiological arousal. Ss were 32 female university students who scored at the extremes on the importance of social approval scale from the Irrational Beliefs Test. It was hypothesized that relative to the low-irrational Ss, high-irrational ones would emit more negative and fewer positive tasks- and self-referent self-statements, report greater emotional arousal, and exhibit greater increases in physiological arousal while visualizing social rejection scenes. The major finding was that the groups differed significantly in the frequency of negative self-referent self-statements; virtually no support was obtained for the other hypotheses. Exp II, which used 24 females and which did not employ self-statements or physiological measures but was otherwise similar to Exp I, was a more exact replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. Exp III, with 36 Ss, was a complete replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. The data from the latter 2 studies indicate no differences in the reported moods of high- and low-irrational Ss following visualizations of social rejection scenes. Conceptual and clinical implications are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional imagery in simple and social phobia: Fear versus anxiety.

In a 1st study, 60 phobic volunteer Ss reacted psychophysiologically with greater vigor to imagery of their own phobic content than to other fearful or nonaffective images. Imagery heart rate responses were largest in Ss with multiple phobias. For simple (dental) phobics, cardiac reactivity was positively correlated with reports of imagery vividness and concordant with reports of affective distress; these relationships were not observed for social (speech) phobics. In a 2nd study, these phobic volunteers were shown to be similar on most measures to an outpatient clinically phobic sample. In an analysis of the combined samples, fearful and socially anxious subtypes were defined by questionnaires. Only the fearful subtype showed a significant covariation among physiological responses, imagery vividness, and severity of phobic disorder. This fearful–anxious distinction seems to cut across diagnostic categories, providing a heuristic perspective from which to view anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Monitoring eye movements under conditions of associative matching, response production, and stimulus and response production.

Monitored eye movements in each of 3 studies with 20, 19, and 18 undergraduates, respectively, while Ss were given 8 study trials on a 7-item paired-associate list. Ss were then subjected to a single test trial of associative matching (Exp. I), response production (Exp. III) or stimulus and response production (Exp. IV). A 4th study with 42 Ss, (Exp. II), without eye movement monitoring, involved 3 groups of Ss given either 2, 4, or 6 study trials followed by a single test trial of associative matching. Results, with the exception of Exp. I, were generally consistent with a 2-stage notion of verbal paired-associate learning. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voluntary expressive changes and emotion.

Examined the influence of changes in facial expression on physiological and self-report measures of emotion. In Exp I, 27 undergraduates portrayed facial expressions associated with being afraid, calm, and normal. Portraying fear produced increases in pulse rate and skin conductance relative to portraying either calm or normal, but posing had no effect on subjective reports of anxiety (Affect Adjective Check List). In Exp II, 38 Ss listened to loud or soft noise while changing their expressions to portray fear, happiness, or calmness. Portraying either fear or happiness produced greater arousal than remaining calm. Changes in facial expression failed to affect self-reports of noise loudness. Results suggest that changes in facial expression influence physiological responses through the movement involved in posing and may not influence self-reports of emotion at all. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual difference factors in the efficacy of Covert Modeling and Self-Instructional Training for fear reduction.

Analyzed the relationship between individual differences in cognitive mediational processes and the efficacy of 2 training strategies for fear reduction: self-instructional training (SIT), based on self-verbalization, and covert modeling (CM), based on visual imagery. 26 undergraduate animal-phobics were randomly assigned to training conditions. Measures included ratings of imagery vividness, visual imagery performance, and measures of cognitive styles. Results indicate that reliance on imagery or verbal strategies to cope with fear was important in predicting treatment effects. Ss who used imagery to cope with fear benefited significantly more from CM than SIT. The reverse occurred for Ss using verbal strategies to cope with fear. These effects were exhibited on both behavioral avoidance and self-reported fear measures. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissonance arousal: Physiological evidence.

Two studies examined whether cognitive dissonance is accompanied by physiological arousal. In Exp I, a standard induced-compliance paradigm was replicated and found to produce the expected pattern of attitude change in 30 male undergraduates. In Exp II, physiological recordings were obtained from 30 additional male undergraduates within the same paradigm. Ss who wrote counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions displayed significantly more nonspecific skin conductance responses than other Ss, but they did not change their attitudes. Results support dissonance as an arousal process. Results also indicate that the Ss misattributed their arousal to the physiological recording device. Findings are discussed in terms of dissonance theory, misattribution phenomena, and social psychophysiological research methods. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The discrepant repressor: Differentiation between low anxiety, high anxiety, and repression of anxiety by autonomic–facial–verbal patterns of behavior.

Examined the notion that personality questionnaires can be used to predict different styles of coping with anxiety, as expressed by individual differences in patterns of autonomic, verbal, and nonverbal reactions. In line with earlier modifications of the repression–sensitization concept, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS) were used to select 4 groups of 12 Ss each from a pool of 206 male university students in Germany: low-anxious Ss, repressors, high-anxious Ss, and defensive high-anxious Ss. Measures of autonomic arousal, facial activity, and self-reported affect were obtained during a potentially anxiety-arousing free-association task and during a number of control conditions, including an amusing film. Significant differences in baseline-corrected heart rate and self-reported anxiety as well as rated facial anxiety all indicated that repressors exhibited a discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high heart rate and facial anxiety; low anxious Ss reported an intermediate level of anxiety, although they showed low heart rate and facial anxiety; high-anxious Ss had consistently high values on all 3 variables; and the defensive high-anxious Ss showed an intermediate level of anxious responding. These group differences were specific to the task of freely associating to phrases of mixed (sexual, aggressive, neutral) content and to self-reported anxiety, indicating that they reflect individual differences in coping with anxiety. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physiological arousal, dissonance, and attitude change: Evidence for a dissonance-arousal link and a "Don't remind me" effect.

Two experiments, with 80 undergraduates, replicated and extended research by R. T. Croyle and J. Cooper (see record 1984-11595-001) indicating that cognitive dissonance involves physiological arousal. In Exp I, Ss wrote counterattitudinal essays under conditions of high or low choice and, to assess arousal effects owing to effort, with or without a list of arguments provided by the experimenter. In high-choice conditions only and regardless of effort, Ss showed both arousal (heightened galvanic skin response) and attitude change. Arousal, however, did not decline following attitude change. The more effortful task (no arguments provided) produced increased arousal but not greater attitude change. In Exp II, the opportunity to change one's attitude following a freely chosen counterattitudinal essay was manipulated. As in Exp I, arousal increased following the essay but did not decline following a postessay attitude change opportunity. When Ss were not given an attitude change opportunity, however, arousal did decline. It is suggested that if dissonance is a drive state, drive reduction typically may be accomplished through gradual cognitive change or forgetting. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response to stress, cognitive coping strategies, and the Type A behavior pattern.

Examined (a) whether Type A (coronary-prone) individuals respond with more psychophysiological arousal to threat to self-esteem than to threat of shock, (b) whether differences between Type A and Type B individuals in psychophysiological responses are greater under high than low stress, and (c) whether Type A and Type B individuals differ in how they cognitively cope with stress. 84 male college students participated. Results indicate that Type A Ss manifested higher pulse rates across all conditions and greater systolic and diastolic blood pressures in response to threat to self-esteem than did Type B Ss. Type A Ss also employed more suppression in response to both threat to self-esteem and threat of shock and employed more denial in response to threat to self-esteem than did Type B Ss. Implications regarding the means by which Type A behavior increases the risk of premature heart disease are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing ocular motility during the performance of cognitive tasks.

Examined the relationship between ocular motility and specific cognitive processes in 2 experiments, using 50 undergraduates. In Exp I, eye movements (EMs) were videotaped as Ss attempted to answer verbal, visuospatial, or musical questions. Visuospatial questions elicited a lower lateral EM rate (EMR) and fewer vertical EMs than did verbal or musical questions. Results support a model that attributes ocular quiescence to interference between visual imagery and visual perception. In Exp II, lateral EMs were recorded electrically as Ss attempted to answer low-, moderate-, and high-imagery questions that required either a constrained or an unconstrained memory search. Constrained questions elicited a lower EMR than did unconstrained questions even when the effect of imagery was eliminated. Stimulus materials for the experiments are appended. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EEG hemispheric asymmetry during sexual arousal: Psychophysiological patterns in responsive, unresponsive, and dysfunctional men.

Investigated patterns of EEG hemispheric asymmetry and penile tumescence in 12 sexually functional and 6 dysfunctional men. All Ss were aged 31–60 yrs. Six sexually functional Ss were responsive and 6 were unresponsive to laboratory presentations of erotic stimuli. Each S was exposed to a counterbalanced sequence of visual and auditory conditions over 2 sessions of testing. Response measures included bilateral temporal and occipital EEG amplitude integrated over 5-sec epochs, strain gauge measures of penile tumescence, and subjective estimates of arousal. Analysis of the hemispheric laterality results indicated a pattern of right-temporal activation in association with maximum tumescence responses in the high-normal Ss. In contrast, the dysfunctional Ss showed moderate tumescence in response to the visual erotic stimuli but greater right-hemisphere activation in response to the auditory erotic stimuli. These psychophysiological patterns are consistent with the literature on cerebral asymmetry and affective arousal. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between projective and direct measures of fear arousal.

The present study reports on the use of a projective measure which in 2 independent replications appeared to be a valid measure of level of induced fear, and which showed a high correlation (+.75) with a direct response scale. However, the data suggest that despite the magnitude of their relationship, the 2 measures are differentially sensitive to expressions of motivation which reflect the Ss' general style of defensive emotional response. Ss who reported themselves as being reticent in expressing their feelings of pain showed greater fear arousal on the projective measure than on the direct measure, while the opposite was true of Ss who reported that they were likely to express their pain to others (p     

Efficacy of relaxation training and guided imagery in reducing the aversiveness of cancer chemotherapy.

50 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy (25 by push injection and 25 by drip infusion) were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions for their chemotherapy treatments: (a) progressive muscle-relaxation training plus guided-relaxation imagery; (b) therapist control, in which a therapist was present to provide support and encouragement but did not provide systematic relaxation training; and (c) no-treatment control. Ss participated in 1 pretraining, 3 training, and 1 follow-up session. Results indicate that during the training sessions, Ss who received relaxation training (a) reported feeling significantly less anxious and nauseated during chemotherapy, (b) showed significantly less physiological arousal and reported less anxiety and depression immediately after chemotherapy, and (c) reported significantly less severe and less protracted nausea at home following chemotherapy. Data suggest that relaxation training may be an effective procedure for helping cancer patients cope with the adverse effects of their chemotherapy. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol on social anxiety in women: Cognitive versus physiological processes.

Randomly assigned 32 female social drinkers (18–25 yr old undergraduates) to 4 conditions in a 2?×?2 factorial design that controlled for drink content and expectations. Ss were administered either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage and were led to believe that their drinks contained or did not contain alcohol. After finishing their drinks Ss participated in a study of social anxiety in which they were requested to interact with a male confederate of the experimenter. Multiple measures, including heart rate, skin conductance, and overt behavioral and self-report responses, were recorded. Ss who expected alcohol showed significant elevations in physiological arousal and were rated as more anxious on observational measures of social behavior. Self-report measures failed to yield any differences among groups. Implications for the tension reduction theory of alcohol use and the importance of multiple response measures are discussed. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)