Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kate Cavanagh
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
There is now considerable evidence that phobic responding is associated with a bias towards expecting aversive or traumatic outcomes following encounters with the phobic stimulus (e.g. Behavioural Brain Sci. 18 (1995) 289–325; Phobias: A Handbook of Theory, Research and Treatment. Wiley, Chichester, 1997). In terms of conditioning contingencies, this can be described as a bias towards expecting an aversive unconditioned stimulus (UCS) following a phobic conditioned stimulus (CS). The disease-avoidance model of animal fears (Anxiety Res. 4 (1992a) 314; Matchett and Davey, 1991) suggests that common animal fears may be mediated by at least two kinds of selective associations: (1) a bias towards expecting physically harmful consequences associated with predatory animals, and (2) a bias towards expecting disgust or disease-relevant consequences associated with animals that are fear-relevant (FR) but normally physically harmless. The present study investigated this model of selective associations by comparing the UCS expectations elicited by high-predation FR, low-predation FR and safe (fear-irrelevant) animals. The results indicate that high-predation animals are selectively associated with a pain relevant UCS, whilst low-predation animals are selectively associated with a disgust-relevant UCS. Safe animals were not strongly associated with either class of UCS. These findings provide evidence for a possible associative mechanism by which changes in nonspecific levels of disgust sensitivity may directly affect levels of fear to low-predation FR animals.
Author(s): Cavanagh K; Davey GCL; Lamb A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
Year: 2003
Volume: 34
Issue: 2
Pages: 117-128
ISSN (print): 0005-7916
ISSN (electronic): 1873-7943
Publisher: Pergamon
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7916(03)00024-7
DOI: 10.1016/S0005-7916(03)00024-7
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
