FEAR OF SPIDERS QUESTIONNAIRE

The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ), an 18-item self-report questi onnaire assessing spider phobia, was developed in an attempt to comple ment the information provided by the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) . Data obtained from 338 undergraduates revealed that the FSQ was able to discriminate phobics from nonphobics, and indicated decrements in phobic responding from pretest to posttest following cognitive therapy . Test-retest data, obtained from no-treatment control groups, indicat ed that scores on the FSQ are stable over a one month period. The FSQ also demonstrated adequate convergent validity due to its significant correlations with the SPQ and a behavioral avoidance test. Finally, a factor analysis revealed two factors accounting for 55% of the varianc e. It is argued that, compared to the SPQ, items on the FSQ are more e xplicit regarding the time period to be assessed, and may be more sens itive to differences between phobics and nonphobics and decrements in phobic responding following treatment.