Fear and avoidance of aversive affective states: Dimensions and causal relations

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the fear of anxiety and fear of sadness can be reduced to other, well-established classes of fear. A second goal was to examine the relationships between these fears and the avoidance of stimuli that evoke these emotions. The Fear Survey Schedule-III, modified to include items assessing the fear of anxiety and the fear of sadness, was administered to 330 nonclinical subjects. Measures of agoraphobic avoidance and of avoidance of saddening stimuli were also completed. The results of a factor analysis of the fear scale revealed that the fear of anxiety and the fear of sadness loaded on separate factors, and were not subsumed within other, well-established classes of fear. The results of causal modelling supported the hypothesis that fear of anxiety contributes to agoraphobic fear, and that both fears promote agoraphobic avoidance. Support was also found for a causal model in which fear of sadness engenders a fear of the cues to sadness, and that both fears promote the avoidance of sadness-evoking stimuli.