Short versions of two specific phobia measures: The snake and the spider questionnaires

Zsidó, András N.; Arató, Nikolett; Inhóf, Orsolya; Jánszky, J.; Darnai, Gergely

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.12.002

Cited by 45 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…We used the abbreviated, 12-item version of the Snake Questionnaire (SNAQ) [57] to measure fear of snakes. Participants answered the questions using a dichotomous response format (true; false).…”

Section: Questionnairesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometric properties of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale in Hungarian adults and adolescents

2021

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Background Although social anxiety disorder is one of the most frequent disorders, it often remained unrecognized. Utilizing brief, yet reliable screening tools, such as the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6) are helping to solve this problem in parts of Western Europe and the US. Still some countries, like Hungary, lag behind. For this purpose, previous studies call for further evidence on the applicability of the scales in various populations and cultures, as well as the elaborative validity of the short forms. Here, we aimed to provide a thorough analysis of the scales in five studies. We employed item response theory (IRT) to explore the psychometric properties of the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6 in Hungarian adults (n = 3213, age range:19–80) and adolescents (n = 292, age range:14–18). Results In both samples, IRT analyses demonstrated that the items of SIAS-6 and SPS-6 had high discriminative power and cover a wide range of the latent trait. Using various subsamples, we showed that (1) the scales had excellent convergent and divergent validity in relation to domains of anxiety, depression, and cognitive emotion regulation in both samples. Further, that (2) the scales discriminated those with a history of fainting or avoidance from those without such history. Lastly, (3) the questionnaires can discriminate people diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (n = 30, age range:13–71) and controls. Conclusions These findings suggest that the questionnaires are suitable for screening for SAD in adults and adolescents. Although the confirmation of the two-factor structure may be indicative of the validity of the “performance only” specifier of SAD in DSM-V, the high correlation between the factors and the similar patter of convergent validity might indicate that it is not a discrete entity but rather a part of SAD; and that SAD is latently continuous.

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Section: Questionnairesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometric properties of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale in Hungarian adults and adolescents

2021

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“…The sample size for this experiment was determined by computing estimated statistical power (b > .8), based on a previous study (Zsido, Bernath, Labadi, & Deak, 2018) using a similar paradigm. The participants completed the short version of the Snake Questionnaire (Zsido, 2017;Zsido, Arato, Inhof, Janszky, & Darnai, 2018). The median score was 3 (IQR = 1-5, M = 3.57, SD = 3.28).…”

Section: Experiments 1 Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Respondents answer by indicating whether the statements are true or false, and the score is given by the sum of 'true' answers (range: 0 to 12). The scale has excellent psychometric properties with a Cronbach's a = .88 (Zsido, Arato, Inhof, Janszky, et al, 2018). Half of the participants completed the questionnaire after the visual search task, and the other half before it to avoid any possible confounding effects.…”

Section: Questionnairementioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the facilitating and hindering effects of threat‐related stimuli – A visual search study

Zsidó

Matuz

Inhóf

et al. 2019

British J of Psychology

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Although large body of research has demonstrated the attention-grabbing nature of threat-related stimuli, threat could also facilitate attentional processes. Previous studies suggest a linear relationship between the facilitating effect of the arousal level conveyed by threat and performance on visual search tasks. Due to the temporal competition bias favouring stimuli with higher arousal level, this could be more pronounced for shorter onset times. Here, through two experiments we aimed to disentangle the two effects by using a visual search paradigm that allowed us to separate the emotional stimuli and the cognitive task. We manipulated stimulus onset time and threat intensity. Participants saw neutral and threatening pictures as priming stimuli, and then, they had to find numbers in ascending order in a matrix array. We measured the reaction time for finding the first number, and search time for finding all the numbers. Our results showed that when the priming stimulus is presented, longer threatening pictures produced longer reaction times compared to neutral ones, which was reversed with increase in arousal. We did not find any significant effects for the shorter onset time. Further theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. Relevance and background of the study The study of attentional biases for threat has been a major theme in the research on the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders (McNally, 2018). A large body of this research area demonstrated that threatening stimuli have a highlighted role in visual processing (

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“…We are very aware that individual differences in snake fear and general disgust propensity may influence the evaluation of snake species. To examine the differences among the respondents in terms of snake-elicited fear and disgust, we collected additional data about the participants including questionnaires such as the SNAQ (Polák et al, 2016, see also Zsido et al, 2018a for its shorter version) and a self-reported response based on a method more suitable for this kind of experiment. However, due to length limitation, these data will be published in a separate article (in prep.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snakes Represent Emotionally Salient Stimuli That May Evoke Both Fear and Disgust

et al. 2019

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Humans perceive snakes as threatening stimuli, resulting in fast emotional and behavioral responses. However, snake species differ in their true level of danger and are highly variable in appearance despite the uniform legless form. Different snakes may evoke fear or disgust in humans, or even both emotions simultaneously. We designed three-step-selection experiments to identify prototypical snake species evoking exclusively fear or disgust. First, two independent groups of respondents evaluated 45 images covering most of the natural variability of snakes and rated responses to either perceived fear ( n = 175) or disgust ( n = 167). Snakes rated as the most fear-evoking were from the family Viperidae ( Crotalinae , Viperinae , and Azemiopinae ), while the ones rated as the most disgusting were from the group of blind snakes called Typhlopoidea ( Xenotyphlopinae , Typhlopinae , and Anomalepidinae ). We then identified the specific traits contributing to the perception of fear (large body size, expressive scales with contrasting patterns, and bright coloration) and disgust (thin body, smooth texture, small eyes, and dull coloration). Second, to create stimuli evoking a discrete emotional response, we developed a picture set consisting of 40 snakes with exclusively fear-eliciting and 40 snakes with disgust-eliciting features. Another set of respondents ( n = 172) sorted the set, once according to perceived fear and the second time according to perceived disgust. The results showed that the fear-evoking and disgust-evoking snakes fit mainly into their respective groups. Third, we randomly selected 20 species (10 fear-evoking and 10 disgust-evoking) out of the previous set and had them professionally illustrated. A new set of subjects ( n = 104) sorted these snakes and confirmed that the illustrated snakes evoked the same discrete emotions as their photographic counterparts. These illustrations are included in the study and may be freely used as a standardized assessment tool when investigating the role of fear and disgust in human emotional response to snakes.

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Short versions of two specific phobia measures: The snake and the spider questionnaires

Cited by 45 publications

References 40 publications

Psychometric properties of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale in Hungarian adults and adolescents

Psychometric properties of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale in Hungarian adults and adolescents

Disentangling the facilitating and hindering effects of threat‐related stimuli – A visual search study

Snakes Represent Emotionally Salient Stimuli That May Evoke Both Fear and Disgust

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