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Effects of Short Exposures to Phobic Material upon Subsequent Phobic Responses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Daniel F. Markus  and
A. G. M. Canavan
Daniel F. Markus
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Pyschology, University of Oxford
A. G. M. Canavan
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Pyschology, University of Oxford
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Extract

Two theories have been advanced to explain the paradoxical increase in fear and avoidance seen after short unreinforced exposures to phobic stimuli. Incubation theory (Eysenck, 1968) and sensitization theory (Watts, 1971) are similar with regard to the conditions specified for enhancement of such responses. However, an incubated response is seen as specific to the CS in question, whereas sensitized responsiveness is a more generalized process. Subjects were either exposed or not exposed to a feared stimulus (cockroaches), and were then administered generalization tests to the same stimulus or to a non-feared stimulus (toad). Measures of subjective anxiety, behavioural avoidance and physiological activity were taken. No evidence was found for the enhancement phenomenon to either phobic material or non-feared material. The phenomenon does not appear to be a reliable one.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 218 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1985

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