WHATS THE FEAR OF - USING IMPLOSION TO EXPLORE THE BODILY-INJURY FEARCOMPLEX

The present study utilized implosive therapy scenes to assess fear rea ctions to cues hypothesized to be instrumental in the development and maintenance of bodily-injury phobia. In addition to a bodily mutilatio n stimulus, the cue areas targeted were loss of control and death fear s. Twenty-six high-fear subjects and 24 low-fear subjects rated their fear while imagining that they were the woman depicted in four audiota ped scenes. A repeated measures analysis of variance detected signific ant group differences for the fear ratings, with the high-fear group r eporting more fear than the low-fear group. Also, the high-fear group' s skin conductance response amplitudes averaged across the four scenes were significantly higher than those of the low-fear group. Finally, the high-fear group's more pathological questionnaire scores were sign ificantly different from the low-fear group's for both the Self-Contro l Schedule and the Lester Attitude Toward Death Scale. This study is t he first to assess various components of bodily injury fear through th e use of imagery while measuring across two response-modes. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd