A NEW APPROACH TO THE MEASUREMENT OF OPHIDIOPHOBIA

Current measurement of emotion often produces cognitive, behavioral, a nd physiological measures that disagree. Rather than accept the situat ion as unresolvable the study sought to improve the quality of measure ment by removing much of the ambiguity inherent in typical measures of fear. Sixty five (sample 1) and 173 (sample 2) subjects were given an automated version of the Snake Anxiety Questionnaire and an extensive series of follow-up questions ending with a behavioral approach test. Follow, ups were asked contingent on the degree of ambiguity and the subject's response using branching logic. This system has been termed '' Initial Response Verification''. The process was successful in redu cing the number of false-positive (defined as high cognitive-low behav ioral fear) identifications from 100 of 228 to 14 of 228, which was si gnificant at the P < 0.001 level. These reductions were distinctly dif ferent from those of a simple linear transform and were unique to each individual. In sum, behavioral and cognitive measures need not disagr ee when ambiguity is removed.