Information processing in contamination fear: A covariation bias examination of fear and disgust

Connolly, Kevin M.; Lohr, Jeffrey M.; Olatunji, Bunmi O.; Hahn, Kathryn S.; Williams, Nathan L.

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.03.017

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Items are summed into a total score. Prior research has also used the DS-R with a 5-point Likert scale (Cisler, Olatunji, et al, 2008; Connolly et al, in press ). The DS-R correlates highly with other measures of disgust (e.g., Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-revised; van Overveld et al, 2006) and predicts behavioral avoidance of disgusting objects/situations (Rozin et al, 1999).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disgust sensitivity and emotion regulation potentiate the effect of disgust propensity on spider fear, blood-injection-injury fear, and contamination fear

Cisler¹,

Olatunji²,

Lohr³

2009

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

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Research consistently reveals a relation between disgust and specific anxiety concerns, but research has only begun to investigate possible mechanisms by which this relation occurs. The current study tested whether disgust sensitivity (DS; a specific difficulty regulating disgust) and general emotion dysregulation (GED; non-emotion-specific regulation difficulties) moderated the relation between disgust propensity (DP) and spider fear, blood-injection-injury (BII) fear, and contamination fear. 594 undergraduate students completed verbal-report measures of DP, DS, GED, negative affectivity, and spider, BII, and contamination fears. Results suggest that GED potentiates the ability of DP to predict spider and contamination fears, but not BII fears. DS potentiates the ability of DP to predict BII fears, but not spider or contamination fears. These data suggest that GED and DS are possible mechanisms that strengthen the influence of DP on spider, BII, and contamination fears. The present study demonstrates the utility of incorporating emotion regulation into the theory of disgust in certain anxiety disorders

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disgust sensitivity and emotion regulation potentiate the effect of disgust propensity on spider fear, blood-injection-injury fear, and contamination fear

Cisler¹,

Olatunji²,

Lohr³

2009

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

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“…Although not a study of interpretation bias, Connolly et al found that participants with elevated fear of contamination overestimated the covariation between scenes depicting various forms of contamination and disgust and fearful faces compared with participants without these fears [27]. This provides evidence that individuals with elevated contamination/washing symptoms have a greater tendency to draw associations between contamination-relevant stimuli and certain emotional reactions.…”

Section: Cognitive Componentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disgust in contamination-based obsessive–compulsive disorder: a review and model

Brady

Adams

Lohr

2010

Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by the presence of unwanted, intrusive thoughts coupled with ritualized behaviors intended to reduce subjective anxiety. Although once considered a homogeneous disorder, recent findings support a view of OCD as consisting of symptom subtypes. Additionally, there has been increased interest in the contribution of disgust to various forms of psychopathology. The present article summarizes the available literature on contamination-based OCD with an emphasis on the role of disgust as it pertains to the etiology and maintenance of this form of OCD. We propose an updated model of contamination-based OCD that accounts for the elevated disgust response observed in individuals with this form of OCD. Treatment implications of a disgust-based model of the disorder are discussed in the context of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

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“…Connolly and colleagues ( in press ) used a covariation paradigm (i.e., a task in which the perceived covariation between a CS and different types of UCS’s is measured) and found that individuals with elevated contamination fear overestimated the pairings of contamination-related pictures (e.g., vomit, dog feces) with pictures of fear facial expressions and disgust facial expressions to a greater degree than with neutral facial expressions. There were no differences in the estimations of pairings between fear facial expressions and disgust facial expressions.…”

Section: A Critical Review Of Disgust-related Anxiety Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disgust, fear, and the anxiety disorders: A critical review

Cisler

Olatunji

Lohr

2009

Clinical Psychology Review

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254

200

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Anxiety disorders have traditionally been conceptualized as reflecting the emotions of fear and anxiety. A developing program of research demonstrates a relation between disgust and three specific anxiety disorders: blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, spider phobia, and contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This review serves three purposes. First, the authors review the response patterns predicted to be observed if the emotional response in these disorders involved disgust versus fear. The review suggests specific response patterns that characterize disgust and fear in the domains of heart rate, facial expression, neural activity, and cognitive processes. Second, the authors review extant research employing measures of these domains in spider phobia, BII phobia, and contamination-related OCD. The evidence suggests that both fear and disgust characterize each of these disorders, but the magnitude at which the emotions characterize the disorders may depend on the response domain measured. For example, disgust may be more involved in spider phobia in appraisals and facial expression, but less involved in neural correlates or heart rate domains. Third, the authors suggest guidelines for future research, including concurrent use of specific measures as well as examining whether the different emotions in different response domains respond to similar interventions (e.g., exposure).

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Information processing in contamination fear: A covariation bias examination of fear and disgust

Cited by 18 publications

References 57 publications

Disgust sensitivity and emotion regulation potentiate the effect of disgust propensity on spider fear, blood-injection-injury fear, and contamination fear

Disgust sensitivity and emotion regulation potentiate the effect of disgust propensity on spider fear, blood-injection-injury fear, and contamination fear

Disgust in contamination-based obsessive–compulsive disorder: a review and model

Disgust, fear, and the anxiety disorders: A critical review

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