Anxiety response patterns and etiological factors in dog-fearful and non-fearful subjects

Abstract

Rachman's model of fear acquisition predicts that phobias with direct conditioning etiologies are associated with higher physiological arousal than phobias with indirect etiologies. Physiological. subjective and behavioral measures were obtained from dog-fearful college students and compared with a group of non-fearful controls. The two groups were divided according to the presence or absence of direct conditioning events involving dogs. Equally high proportions of fearful and non-fearful Ss reported such conditioning events. Contrary to the model's predictions, the presence of conditioning events among fearful Ss was unrelated to higher physiological arousal or behavioral indications of fear. Among the controls, the presence or absence of conditioning events was related to physiological arousal during exposure. Non-fearful Ss without conditioning events showed a slight decrease in arousal during exposure while non-fearful Ss with conditioning events showed increases in arousal equal to that of the fearful Ss. Because conditioning events were equally prevalent and associated with increased arousal in both fearful and non-fearful Ss these factors alone cannot account for the development of phobias.